The Unwanted Beginning 1
by orworsexpelled
Summary: Melody Shaw never wanted her so-called gift. She never wanted to join The Winchesters, she didn't even know they existed. That anything they hunted did.
1. Chapter 1

**This is only my second story! I know this story has a lot of others like it, but please read and review. Negative and positive comments alike appreciated!**

West Hartford, Connecticut: 2005

_My bedroom door creaks open, letting a sliver of light in the darkness appear. His shadow is disturbing with his mane of scraggly hair over his face. His head rises and his eyes are framed by his dark hair. His eyes. A trick of the light, it has be. But no. As he walks forward they only grow brighter. Golden. As golden as the sun. And that is the last moment of my innocence._

_"MMMMMM! MMMMM!" My cries of help are muffled by his rough hand. But my mom comes barreling in anyway. My dad not far behind._

_"Shh" He says calmly. "You'll be alright."_

_His head whips around, too quick to be human. Too fast for… anything. His smile drips of poisoned honey as he flicks his wrist towards my parents. Just when I thought this couldn't get worse. They struggle, pressed against the wall. How can that be? They can't even move! My breathing becomes hyperventilation as yellow-eyes turns back to me. Scared and confused as I am, I desperately hope he takes out a gun. Maybe I can take it from him. But with what he just did, I know my chances are slim. Instead he takes out a dropper. A dropper. Even in my dream-like state, I want to laugh. But of course! It's a dream! I can change it now! Desperately I close my eyes and picture a field, a wide open field with no one in sight! I open my eyes. No such luck. But this… this can't be real! It can't. The man opens my mouth, not seeming to mind my struggling. He puts a drop of something thick down my throat. A drug? I don't know what to believe. But for what happens next, I can only hope it's hallucinogenic._

_My parents seemed paralyzed. Unable to even speak. His hand is directed towards my mother, and he drags her up the wall. She wants to scream. Her eyes are pleading. This man, this… this creature, shows no mercy. I wish I could scream as puts her on the ceiling, and she bursts into flames._

"Dean, are we even sure this is a case? I mean, it's sad and all, the youngest child, the survivor of the house fire. But what does this half to do with demons or whatever?" Dean nods, fingers still drumming on the wheel to the screeching sound that Dean thinks is music pounding from the stereo.

"Keep reading." He answers glancing at the sign.

"Welcome to Connecticut!" It beams.

Sam's bangs fall above his eyes as he glances down, struggling to find what's related to the job. It finds him soon enough.

"Huh, but how are we supposed to find her? The report says she's missing." Sam points out, rather unhelpfully.

"Yeah that's the point, we have to." Dean replies in annoyance. They had just come from Wisconsin when he found the case, instead of staying in the motel, he had head straight here. Small little Connecticut, where literally nothing happens. They sit in silence until they reach a motel in West Hartford.

_"Carolyn? It's okay, it's okay. Can you tell me what happened?" The doctors voice is supposed to be soothing. It comes off as patronizing. The room is too clean, too crisp, too white._

_"Why? So you can put me on drugs? Call me crazy? Glaze it all over as the trauma speaking? I know what I saw. You'll never believe me." My voice cuts, though it shakes ever so slightly. Like I haven't stopped doing since that night._

_"I know sweetheart, but there were no drugs in your system that night, that couldn't of happened. Her voice is condescending, though I know she doesn't mean it to be._

_"You already know, it hasn't changed since my first telling. Non-fiction'll do that to you." I say sarcastically sweet. My body stops shaking for the first time in weeks, and I'm tired, so I helpfully point that out._

_"Um, ok, let us just talk a minute sweetheart ok? Your aunt will be out in a minute." I nod a practically run out of the room. I can't stand it. They think I'm crazy. Maybe I am. But that night, it was just so vivid. Until the end, I still don't know how I got out. Or… why._

Sam had finished the report and saw why Dean was so interested. From what he knew, it sounded like what had happened to him. But there was a missing tie. Sam was just a baby when it happened. Six months old exactly. This kid was 11 years old, and, well, six months, to the day. But she could be anywhere, in reason at least. She couldn't drive, the whole town knew who she was and what she looked like. No one from town would let her hitch hike, they'd bring her in for help, she couldn't access the family's money either. But even so, she had a few days head start, and managed to slip by the authorities so far. It was likely they'd need other hunter's help. They should call Bobby. But first it was time to get more of the story. Sam straightened his tie in front of the mirror and grabbed one of his many FBI badges, along with a few other ID's. Just in case. Dean and taken a nap, still refusing to let Sam drive the precious Impala. Dean looked messy but okay. And cocky, but some agents are anyway. The boys headed to the car and headed towards the local police department Time to get more of the story.

_I headed straight upstairs to the bathroom. My Uncle not so subtly headed in any direction that wouldn't pass the house. They had decided on pills. Whatever. They still couldn't make me change the story. Splashing cold water on my face, I clung on to the hope that this was a dream. That they'd still be alive, anything. Anything but this reality. No such luck. I stood in front of the mirror and saw what others saw. Bloodshot eyes. Messy hair that I didn't bother to brush. I was so… lifeless. I closed my eyes and pictured a girl with honey hair. Streaked by the sun with blond. Sea green eyes that were happy and clear. Perfect vision. Strong but beautiful with long, tan legs. I didn't want to open my eyes but did reluctantly. What I saw was blurry, confused I took off my glasses again to splash my face. Perfect vision. Without them on. In the mirror I saw the girl. Maybe I was crazy. But then I looked down, the long tan legs surprised me, I didn't get tan. And I hadn't taken my "prescribed" pills yet. A knock came at the door. I reverted to my old self and was immediately exhausted._

_"Um, Carolyn? Dinner time!" My aunt tried to sound cheery, but I mean, her brother died and I had apparently gone crazy. So life was a little hard for her too._

_"Uh, I'm a little tired, can I just take a nap?" I meant it, I guess changing your entire body was a little exhausting._

_"You need to eat honey…" She said, a worried tone coming on._

_"I will, just later. OK?" Pity overtook her._

_"Ok, I'll… wake you later?" She sounded nervous._

_"Um… yeah that's fine." I downed some advil for my starting headach and waited until she was downstairs before opening the door. Stumbling into the old guest room I layed down. Only one thought got out before I fell asleep. What was happening to me?_


	2. Chapter 2

"Excuse me officer? Agents Drake and Pomare, we're here about the missing girl?" Dean asked smoothly as they whipped out their (fake) badges.

"Oh yeah, real shame. She was so good in school and all, trauma got to her head. What do you need?" The sheriff asked.

"Everything you have, and we would like to see the doctor, if at all possible?" Sam chimed in.

"Sure, yeah, anything else? We've organized a group to try to find her already." The man was so gullible.

"Sure I'll talk to the guy in charge of it." Dean offered.

"Careful, he's her Uncle." Officer Warren warned.

"Excuse me, I'm agent Darren Pomare, you were Melody Shaw's doctor right? Sam questioned.

"Yes, that's me." Dr. Kendall said. The old woman's brow creased.

"What do you need to know?" She asked, clearly thinking the FBI should have all the documents. Sam cleared his throat.

"Well, I need her story, the files." Dr. Kendall looked suspicious.

"Don't you have them already?" She asked skeptically. As Sam struggled to explain, Dean was having his own problems with Sergeant Shaw, Melody's uncle.

"We have it under control!" Sergeant Shaw said, becoming more annoyed with Dean by the second.

Dean sighed in clear frustration.

"We just want to bring in a few more people! They have… unconventional ways sometimes, but it works!"

"This whole **town** has been looking for Melody! If we can't find her... ' his voice broke 'no one can."

"Come on man! What's a few more people to help out?" Dean reasoned carefully.

"You're right, you're right, bring them in… maybe we will find her…" Dean smiled. Time to call Bobby.

* * *

"So, did you convinced him or not? Sam asked, confused at Dean's description.

"Yeah, but it was harder than it should've been." He mumbled.

"Wouldn't you want all the help you can get? What about you?"

"Well, it's interesting… Melody's file is the perfect story! Almost anyway. I mean, c'mon Dean, the kid is eleven! This isn't what usually happens! It's always kids that are six months old exactly! It just doesn't make sense!"

"Eleven years… and six months. Either way we should try to find her, we can't just drop out now! Besides, maybe she knows something. Why are you being so stubborn about this anyway?" Dean asked, clearly becoming more agitated by the second.

"I don't know, have you called Bobby yet?"

"Um, when would've I had time for that again?"

"Whatever, just call him."

"On it… Boss" Dean replied rolling his eyes.

* * *

_They allowed me to take another week off of school. It was mainly to practice. The whole possible power/hallucination thing was distracting… in a good way. I looked forward to it when I woke up. I tried new hair colors, highlights, styles, skin color, strength. It was… empowering. I could be anyone. Do anything. Each day I was less and less tired. My aunt figured the pills caused my better mood, but kept taking me to Yale to see my crazy doctor. I decided I was only making things worse, so pretended that it was trauma that caused my story and that I remember that night better. Arsonist came in and my parents were caught in the fire, I still didn't know how exactly I escaped but still managed to connect everything. My mother heard my screaming and came in, so the arsonist threw a lit match at them. And his eyes were caught weirdly in the light, which was presumably why I saw yellow eyes. Other than that my description didn't change. I still wanted that maniac creature behind bars. Who wouldn't? I kept going because they wanted to make sure I wasn't lying about my amazingly strange memory._

_My alarm vibrated in my ear early on Monday morning, I was about to hit the snooze button when I remembered. School. Highland Middle School. I forced myself to stand, and did what I rehearsed the past week. She looked like a tad healthier version of me. I kept my height almost the same, along with the basics for authenticity. Hair was done in a tight braid. Cheeks were a little less fat, less sunken, and my eyes lost the black circles around them. Then came the hard part. I focused, developing a small headache. A complimenting pair of comfortable skinny jeans with a flowing light blue top that felt like silk and a cute sweater. All clothes I've never bought. I feel the change before I opened my eyes. I imagined a wallet and money in the wallet earlier, but only the wallet appeared. I stood in front of the mirror, thinking about what this power had cost me. If only I could imagine them being here… I'd give it back, whatever this is. Thanks to my quick change I have 20 minutes to do more research. I can't be the only person like this… right? So far I had hit nothing believable. I clicked on the next link. This one talked about a whole slew of different abilities. Mind control, strength, seeing into the future. A side page was on the website and I was about to click on it when my aunt called me down. I just now smelled the pancakes wafting through the house. She didn't have to do that. Gulping, I head downstairs. _

_Riding in the car, I realize I'm completely unprepared for this. My advisory will be awkwardly all over me, seeing Joseph in math will be weird. And seeing my best friend will just be plain uncomfortable. I don't want pity right now. I just want to be left alone, and no one will understand that._

_I walk in Mrs. Maisch's classroom as the bell rings. My friends run over and hug me, which I barely fight off, and pretend to have a small smile, which I realize looks all wrong and end up biting my lip. There's only one redeeming quality to this school was the fact that neither of my sisters went here. I don't need memories of them threatening a total break down today. Advisory couldn't end sooner, awkwardly, Mrs. Maisch hugs me before my next class, math. It's sure to be a long uncomfortable day._

* * *

Dean sighs as the phone snaps together.

"Looks like we're on our own for this one. Bobby is in the middle of a case himself." He says.

"Great, so two of us, a 24 hour gap, and a freaked out kid who could be anywhere?"

"Yeah that sums it up. But how far could've she gotten right? She's eleven and practicallly all of Connecticut is looking for her. Chances are someone else will find her first." Dean replies, unusually calm for him.

"Did you remember the pie?" Dean asks motioning towards the takeout bag. Sam sighs.

"When have I ever forgotten?"

"Tons of times! Anyway, we better get started… um… somewhere."

"This is sure to be fun." Sam nods. "Let's start in Hartford, the capital, that's where I would go originally."

"And obviously this kid would think like you… right." Dean realizes he shouldn't of said this as Sam starts to get agitated

"Well if she went through the same thing I did I think maybe she would! So let's go already!"

"Jeez, sorry." Dean says as he starts the engine. Both of them are worried about their chances of finding her.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note; Sorry about the name confusion in the beginning! I got my notes mixed up, that's for a different story not in fan fiction! Please comment what you think! Thanks for following artsyari and rafaelaneves! Much appreciated!**_

_When I finally get home, I grab a snack and run upstairs. The teachers gave me a pass on homework for the week, despite the fact that I've been gone for most of the month, so I use the time strictly on my laptop. Back to the website. As I scroll through it, I notice no mention of my "ability", but plenty others. Skipping for sake of time I scroll to the "Why?" part. _

_Demons. _

_Specifically ones with yellow eyes. I snap the laptop shut. Is this someone's idea of a joke? The yellow eyes? The powers? It seems like it was directed at me. I check the publish date and realize it was from years ago. Is this real then? The website describes the demon's capabilities. I start to worry. What if it comes back? Am I putting my cousins in danger? It could know where I live! Where I go to school. I need to leave immediately. I could make myself look differently… I glance in the mirror noticing I've reverted to my regular self. I'm tired, I have a headache. And I can barely change my hair color. I need… more time. But I know I have to leave. I can't live knowing there are things out there like this. And for all I know I have a bounty on my head, just like the rest of these people._

* * *

Search parties are everywhere, crawling the streets of Hartford, asking everyone and anyone about Melody. Sam winces when they pass the office where her mom worked. Of course he'd remember a detail like that.

"So… where do we start?" Sam asks uncertainly.

"Where we were assigned, this section of Hartford." Dean replies, pointing to a map. After over 2 hours they finish combing the area. Looking for sulfur, and other signs of supernatural and not disturbances. Mostly they look like everyone else does, and everyone is unsuccessful. They switch areas, and spend a whole day looking for her. After reconvening at the station they learn some helpful things.

"We have a track on her phone, but it's turned off, so we can't find it. As soon as it turns on we will. We have men under cover so more will trust them. All efforts are pointed at Melody. We meet tomorrow at 8.

Dean barely stiffles a groan

"All over Connecticut people are searching. We will find her. Sam reminds him.

"Let's just find a bar until then. Ok?"

* * *

_The next day is yet again awkward. I consider faking sick, how hard could it be when you're me? But don't want everyone worried about me. So I blend, I act normal. I pretend to be like my old self. Apparently I'm a good actress. After going "home" I remember no one is there today. Tuesday's. Everyone has to work late and my cousin had a club._

_My eyes wander to my Aunt's ID, which she must've forgotten. Wouldn't fake ones of these be helpful. I touch it, imagining myself on it. I shriek when it look at it again. Melody Shaw, my picture, my information. I pull my hand back, only to discover it stays. I grab it again, changing it back to my Aunt's face and info. Maybe this is possible. I'll need a random ID, lots of cash, which can be stolen easily, and, I suppose my phone, though I'll turn it off, and I'll keep my laptop for now, never know when It'll come in handy. I can head to the city, steal some cash while looking different, buy a licensed gun from a shady store, and hitchhike, grab buses, and just run. I'll start a new life. Maybe when I'm strong enough I can keep a steady identity, go to school and college and have a normal life._

_Maybe this is possible. A lump rises in my throat. My cousins will be worried. Uncle Jason, Sergeant, I should say will be looking for me, along with the rest of the police. I shake my head. "You're doing this to protect them" I remind myself. I plan to leave next Tuesday. I can get everything in order by then, and give myself extra time to run, or hitchhike to Hartford._

* * *

_Present Day_

_Leaving Hartford was harder than I thought it was. I can't find a good time to do it, and keeping my identity during the day is so hard that I can't at night. That's what worries me. The police have night shifts, and if one of them caught me sleeping as myself I don't know what I'd do. So I'm careful, but one night someone is about to catch me. I reluctantly turn on my phone and call 911, claiming I've seen Melody very close to where I am now, the policemen turn and run and soon as they get the call. Safe, I fall back asleep, unknowingly having made a mistake, I never shut off my phone._

* * *

Sam and Dean are out at night when they get a frantic phone call from the station.

"Hello? Yes this is Agent Drake. What!? Really? Awesome! Yeah we're nearby, we'll pick her up, no worries, meet everyone back at the station." Sam is questioning Dean as he heads to the car.

"What if she did it on purpose, dumped the phone and left?"

"It's the best lead we have, and for all we know demons are luring us there and I'm not having stupid police officers there to get killed!" They ride in silence for a few minutes.

"She should be right down that alley." Dean says, pulling over his precious Impala. Flashlights and guns in hand they start walking until they see a figure. Quietly they creep over, unable to see her face. Sam finally breaks the silence.

"Hello?" Melody's face shoots into the light.

* * *

_A voice woke me. Without thinking I had shot upright. The_y _could see my face. They recognized me, I could tell from their faces. I belatedly noticed the guns in their hands. I probably couldn't fight without getting shot, and I couldn't change without them seeing me, and then they'd know. I couldn't kill them, but they'd tell somebody. Luckily I had picked up some skills living on the street. _

_I managed to kick a gun out of one's hand, and lunged for it, but the taller one pinned me to the wall before I could get there. _

"_Hey! Hey! Calm down! We know what happened. I get that you're scared, but your story, we believe you!" Meanwhile the shorter guy rubbed his hand and grabbed his gun._

"_Nice kick by the way." He says partially sarcastic but technically honest. I ignore him and turn toward by bigger, quite literally, concern._

"_Yeah right." I hiss. "You just want me to come back in your stupid car so you can put me on more meds and lock me in a rubber room!" The taller one of the two is suddenly very serious, and angry._

"_My name is Sam Winchester and that's Dean. When I was six months old the same thing happened to me, my mother burned on my ceiling while my dad watched. And ever since they have hunted these… things, and more! Demons, ghosts, poltergeists, shifters, anything you can think of! So yes! We believe you." _

_I gape at "Sam." So does "Dean"_

_I guess he wasn't expecting Sam to say that either. I manage to surprise them back though. Honestly, it's not that hard. _

"_Can you do this then?" I ask as a challenge. And then I turn my hair neon blue. _

_And as expected, all hell broke loose._

_In an instant a gun was pointed at me. Water as thrown in my face and they cut my arm with a silver knife. Without a second I heal myself and dry my hair, changing it back to my usual color. I haven't noticed, but I've gotten stronger, I can keep my identity for longer. The boys stare at me in disbelief. _

"_What the hell was that?" I hissed at them, barely remembering to whisper. Finally the shorter guy, Dean, speaks up, he's the one who did the weird water thing._

"_Sorry, but some of the stuff we deal with has a knack for looking different and we were basically making sure you weren't a monster." _

"_Oh, you could've given me a warning, but whatever." I say with a roll of my eyes. Dean smirks, and I smirk back. But Sam is clearly mostly business. _

"_We need to get you back." My anger flares. _

"_What? I can't go back! I ran away to protect them! What if something comes after me! And after knowing everything… I can't go back to a normal life. Don't you get it? You guys certainly didn't!" Sam starts to protest, and Dean cuts in quickly as well._

"_You're eleven! You're way too young to start hunting!" He exclaims. _

"_Am I though?" I ask, changing myself to a 20 year old, and then exactly like him. _

"_I could be anyone," I say in his voice, then switch back to myself. "Or anything." I add quietly._

"_I want to hunt. With you guys. Teach me everything you know, I can't go back, I just can't!" Sam almost protests again, but then sighs, defeated. _

"_What are we supposed to tell your Aunt and Uncle?" I think for a moment. _

"_Tell them I'm dead, say my phone was stolen and that the guy got away. "It's sad, but it's better that way." They both reluctantly nod. _

"_I guess we have some training to do then." _


	4. Home

_**Author's Note: I want to thank the guests that commented on this story! Much appreciated! I'm starting with real episodes with my character included, because I hate bugs, I'm starting on the 9th episode. I'm basically following the transcript, so they might be a little long. And sorry about the Megapost. I was so focused on finishing the episode that I never posted anything so I'm doing it all in one. Would you rather have all episodes like this (which would be longer in between posts) Or shorter ones which I'd post more often? Comment your thoughts!**_

_**November, 2005**_

While Sam stayed reluctant all through my training, he knew I couldn't go back to my life. They taught me everything they knew, and then some. I read their dad's journal, Bobby's books, learned how to shoot and some other interesting things. Dean told me about their life and how Sam went to college, and I showed them all my tricks. They were very happy about my ID trick, they only had to get one, and got me some credit cards. I decided I couldn't be called Melody anymore, and they hardly knew me anyway, so they called me Gemma or Gem.

Eventually it was time to go on a hunt, my first real one. They still called it a test run, things got too heated, and I wasn't allowed to hunt. I agreed to the terms, determined to prove myself. I made myself usually around 18, at first it weirded them out, but I wasn't going to stand around being almost 12 with 20 year olds. Awkward. We were staying in a motel room (they claimed because I could be any height I had to take the couch) and Dean and I are looking for strange news stories. Sam's drawing something.

"All right. I've been cruisin' some websites. I think I found a few candidates for our next gig. A fishing trawler found off the coast of Cali –- its crew vanished. And, uh, we got some cattle mutilations in West Texas." Dean starts.

"And a guy killed three families, doesn't remember and no forced entries." I add.

"Hey. Are we boring you with this hunting evil stuff?" Dean asks when Sam doesn't make a comment. Sam looks up.

"No, I'm listening. Keep going."

"And, here, a Sacramento man shot himself in the head. Three times." Dean waves his hand at Sam.

"Uh, Sam? Hello? Earth to Sam!" I say tapping him. He ignores me.

"Wait, I've seen this." Sam grabs the pad and rifles through a duffel bag.

"What?" Sam is holding an old photograph and comparing the tree he drew to it.

"I know where we have to go."

"Where?"

"Back home, back to Kansas. This photo was taken in front of the old house, where mom died. And it didn't burn down, it was rebuilt. Right?" I look at Sam weirdly. Why bring this up? It's a touchy subject for Dean, and why should we go anyway?

"I guess so, yeah. What the hell are you talkin' about?"

"Okay, look, this is gonna sound crazy but….the people who live in our old house –- I think they might be in danger."

"Why would you think that?"

"Uh…it's just, um….look, just trust me on this, okay?" I watch the two of them like a tennis match. What is going on? "No offense, but I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me why." I say, startling them.

"Gem's right, that's weak. Give me more than that. Sam sighs.

"Fine, I've been having these… nightmares."

"I noticed." I mention. Dean shoots me his famous "shut up" look as Sam continues.

"And sometimes, they come true." Dean is stunned.

"Come again?"

"I dreamt about Jessica for days before it happened."

"It could've just been a weird dream." I point out. Sam turns to me.

"The blood dripping, the fire, everything! I didn't do anything because I didn't believe it. And now I'm dreaming about that tree, about our house, and about some woman inside screaming for help. I mean, that's where it all started, man, this has to mean something, right?"

"I don't know." Dean replies, he clearly doesn't want to back to his old house. Sam looks at me for help. I bite my lip and think.

"Sam's right. We might as well check it out, just to be safe. We treat it like a normal case and if we don't find anything, we'll go to Sacramento or one of those cases. Deal?" Dean shakes his head

"I swore to myself I'd never go back there." He says sadly.

"Look, Dean, we have to check this out. Just to make sure." Dean is obviously defeated.

"I know we do."

* * *

Soon enough, we're driving past the Lawrence sign. In my days with the boys, I've learned three things.

1\. Dean always drives unless he will kill us all by falling asleep at the wheel, and even then Sam only sometimes drives

2\. Dean's music is awful, but according to him "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." But he always drives. I need some headphones.

3\. I never get shotgun, therefore I sleep in the backseat a lot. It's the only way to escape the music.

As we pull into the Winchester old driveway, I "change" into a 20-ish year old girl with a t shirt and a jacket. The guys are looking at me weirdly, I guess they still haven't gotten used to it yet.

"You gonna be alright man?" Sam asks as we climb out of the car

"Let me get back to you on that." Dean says slamming the door shut.

I knock and when someone answers Sam looks like he's seen a ghost. Just as Dean starts to lie about being agents, Sam just tells the truth, partially. I'm an official Winchester and we were just driving by, close enough.

"Winchester. Yeah that's so funny. You know, I think I found some of your photos last night." I raise my eyebrows at them as we walk inside, Dean is still giving me a funny look. The woman's name is Jenny, she has a daughter named Sari and a son named Ritchie, who is chanting for juice. I look around without seeming weird. After all, this was their old house and despite what they've told me, I don't know much about their pre-hunting lives. Dean chats Jenny up about some problems in the house. The only things I'm interested in are the flickering lights and the scratching coming from rats she can't she. Suddenly Sari speaks up.

"Mom? Ask them if it was here when they lived here." Sam jumps right on it.

"What Sari?"

"The thing in my closet!" Jenny switches into comforting mother mode.

"Oh no baby! There was nothing in their closets! Right." She looks pointedly at the three of us. I let them answer, for all I know there was something in their closets.

"Right. No, no of course not." Sam answers quickly. Jenny explains that Sari had a nightmare but Sari quickly defends herself.

"I wasn't dreaming! It came into my bedroom and it was on fire!" Sam and Dean look totally shocked. I'm more interested but don't press it. Soon we're leaving, and Jenny apologises. As soon as the door is closed to the house theories come.

"Soo, was Jenny the person in your dreams?" I ask Sam.

"Yeah. And the scratching? The flickering lights? Not even mentioning the figure on fire, that sounds like a malevolent spirit."

"I'm just freaked that your weirdo visions are coming true." Dean cuts into our different evil things discussion.

"Forget that for a minute, that thing in the house, do you think it killed Mom and Jessica?" I clear my throat loudly. Hello? My mom is also dead!

"I don't know!" Dean says, as if unwilling to believe it.

"Has it come back? Has it been here the whole time?" Sam presses, as if we know anything he doesn't.

"It could be something else entirely different, we don't know yet Sammy." Dean says, still against the whole thing that killed his Mom possibility.

"Well these people are in danger! We have to get them out of that house." Sam urges.

"And we will." Dean grabs for the car door, but Sam grabs his arm so I stop too.

"I mean now." Rolling my eyes at their panic I try to talk sense into Sam's head.

"Because you have the perfect story set up that she's going to believe? Mutant man-eating invisible rats?" Ok, maybe I went too far. Sam's mad.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" He says in an exasperated tone.

"What we usually do." Dean comments before climbing into the Impala. "Let's go."

* * *

We head to a gas station. While the car fills up I get us some needed food, Sam demanded something healthy, so I grab some bananas, and Dean wouldn't let me out of the store if I didn't grab pie. With a good amount of food, I start to head out of the store, but see Sam and Dean talking. I make my hearing better, 'cause I can do that, by like a human bat's standard and listen, they're having a brotherly moment so, I focus on the parts of the case they're talking about. When they appear to be done, I finally exit the store with food in hand.

"What took you so long?" Dean asks.

"I didn't want to die!" I say, holding up his pie.

"Awesome! You get shotgun! Put it in the car, I have to go to the bathroom."

"K" I say sliding into the front seat, despite Sam's protest. He does that a lot, it's rather annoying.

"What were you guys talking about?" I ask Sam, wondering how much he'll say.

"The case, we're going to talk to our Dad's friends, neighbors, anyone who was there at the time." So he doesn't tell me about the carrying out the front door. It was a little personal I guess, so long as it's not related to a case I'll let it slide, besides I don't want them to know I was eavesdropping. Not that I plan to stop if necessary.

Dean comes back a few minutes later and quickly digs into his precious pie.

* * *

As planned, we head over to the garage where John used to work. Despite the fact that they are talking about their father as if they don't know him and have no connections to him, they seem like boring agents looking at a cold case. They should've been actors, no wonder Sam was going to be a lawyer.

"So you and John Winchester, you used to own this garage together?"

"Yeah, we used to, a long time ago. Matter of fact, it must be, uh…twenty years since John disappeared. So why the cops interested all of a sudden?"

"Oh, we're re-opening some of our unsolved cases, and the Winchester disappearance is one of 'em."

"Oh, well, what do you wanna know about John?"

"Well, whatever you remember, you know, whatever sticks out in your mind."

"Well…he was a stubborn bastard, I remember that. And, uh, whatever the game, he hated to lose, you know? It's that whole Marine thing. But, oh, he sure loved Mary. And he doted on those kids." Sweet, but not exactly helpful. I need to get this going.

"But that was before the fire, did he ever talk about that night?" I start him.

"No, not at first, I think he was in shock."

"But later…" I prompt.

"Oh, he wasn't thinking straight. He said something caused the fire and killed Mary." Dean jumps on the thought.

"He ever say what?" The owner grumbles about electrical shortenings before saying something interesting.

"He started readin' these strange ol' books. He started goin' to see this palm reader in town." Unfortunately, he doesn't know who. There can't be too many in small Lawrence, Kansas, right?

* * *

Ok, so there are more than I expected. Sam is reading off a list while Dean and I lean on the Impala, thinking about which one makes sense.

"There's someone named El Divino. There's, uh –-He laughs —there's the Mysterious Mister Fortinsky. Uh, Missouri Moseley—" Dean stops him

"Wait, wait. Missouri Moseley?"

"What?"

"That's a psychic?" I glance at the phonebook that Sam's holding.

"Well apparently, what's with the interest?"

"In dad's journal," he sneaks a glance at me. As this is my first hunt, I guess they don't trust me too much yet. Just wait until I save their lives or something. "Here, look at this." He opens to the very first page."

"I went to Missouri and I learned the truth." Sam reads off of it. Dean shrugs. "I always thought he meant the state."

* * *

So soon, we're in Missouri's "waiting room" I guess she gets pretty busy for a small town. On the way here Sam asked me yet more questions about my old life. Like I need reminding. My answers got so sarcastic Dean had to ask him to stop.

"All right, there. Don't you worry 'bout a thing. Your wife is crazy about you." Missouri says as she walks a man out the door. "Whew. Poor bastard. His woman is cold-bangin' the gardener."

I snort. "Well than why didn't you tell him?" Dean asks, holding back a smile. "People don't come here for the truth, they come for good news." Hard to argue that one, would've I wanted to know my life was going to be ruined by a demon? Especially if I couldn't stop it? I don't think so.

"Well? Sam and Dean," Wow, standing right here! "Come on already, I ain't got all day." We follow her into the next room. "Well, lemme look at ya. Oh, you boys grew up handsome. And you were one goofy-lookin' kid, too." She says pointing at Dean. Though I'd never admit it to his face, Dean is kind of handsome, I wish I could've seen him when he was 8 or something. "Sam. Oh, honey…I'm sorry about your girlfriend. And your father –- he's missin'?" Um, what? How did she know this? Sam says what I don't. "Well you were just thinking it now." Call me a skeptic, but he can hear her thoughts? Yeah right.

"And who's the judgmental one?" Ok, maybe she can read thoughts, there are ghosts and stuff after all. "Gemma, Gemma Shaw. I'm just a friend." I hope she doesn't read my mind right now.

"Anyway, back to our dad, where is he? Is he ok?" Dean interrupts to cut the pleasantries. "I don't know." "Aren't you supposed to be psychic?" Missouri just stares at him.

"Boy, you see me sawin' some bony tramp in half? You think I'm a magician? I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies in a room, but I can't just pull facts out of thin air. Sit, please." Deciding against squeezing awkwardly in the middle of the brothers, I position myself leaning against the couch. "Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'm 'a whack you with a spoon!" Missouri scolds Dean. "I didn't do anything!" He protests as I struggle not to laugh. "But you were thinkin' bout it."

I manage to only smirk, and Sam's gaze meets mine. By the way he quickly looked away, I can only assume he doesn't trust me. Or doesn't want me here. Or feels awkward. Or feels bad about my situation. His voice snaps me back into reality.

"Okay, so - our dad, uh John, when did you first meet him?" Sam asks, getting back to the focus. "He came for a reading. A few days after the fire. I just told him what was really out there in the dark. I guess you could say…I drew back the curtains for him." Dean nods. "What about the fire? Do you know about what killed our mom, and Gemma's family?" He motions towards me. Way to just give up my life story, at least he agrees that it's the same thing. "I'm so sorry dear." Missouri says to me. "A little. Your daddy took me to your house. He was hopin' I could sense the echoes, the fingerprints of this thing." She stops there. "And…" I prompt. "What was it?"

Her answer is a whisper. "I don't know. Oh, but it was evil."

"So…you think somethin' is back in that house?" Missouri asks, sounding confused. "Definitely." Sam is back to Mr. Confident. "I don't understand." Missouri says. Sam looks at her. "What?" "I haven't been back inside, but I've been keepin' an eye on the place, and it's been quiet. No sudden deaths, no freak accidents. Why is it actin' up now?" "You're right,' I say, the boys are suprised I spoke up, I don't care if I'm new at hunting, this thing might've killed my family too. "It's not like things keep quiet for a bunch of years and act up again. This might not be the same thing. "I don't know. But Dad going missing and Jessica dying, and Gemma's family, and now this house all happening at once –- it just feels like something's starting." Sam says. "Well you're ever the optimist."

We head over to the old house. After trying to get in like normal people, Missouri basically reads Jenny's thoughts.

"You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?" Jenny looks scared. "Who are you?" " We're people who can help, who can stop this thing. But you're gonna have to trust us, just a little." Though seemingly unsure, Jenny lets us in.

"If there's a dark energy in this house, this room should be the center of it." Dean starts to pull out the EMF and fiddles with it. "Why?" Sam asks, looking around. "This used to be your nursery Sam, this is where it all happened." She turns to Dean. "That an EMF?" "Yeah." Dean says turning it on. "Amateur." Dean glares at her, and hte EMF starts frizting. Clearly there's a spirit here.

"I don't know if you three should be dissapointed or relieved, but this ain't the thing that took your mom or your family." She's right, I am disappointed. When Sam convinced us to come here, I really wanted this to be my first hunt. The ultimate revenge. "Wait, are you sure?" Sam asks. Missouri nods. "How do you know?" "It isn't the same energy I felt the last time I was here. It's somethin' different." Wow, it's like their old house is a hot spot for these types of things. "What is it?" "Not it." Missouri replies, walking into the closet. "Them. There's more than one spirit in this place." "What? What are they doing here than? Why would two even be here?" Did I miss something in hunters 101? "They're here because of what happened to your family boys. You see, all those years ago, real evil came to you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds. And sometimes, wounds get infected." I guess I did skip a chapter. "I don't understand." Sam replies, shaking his head. "Uh, yeah, I'm siding with Sammy on this one." I say. He shoots me a look that sends my "don't call me Sammy" chart off the hook. I'll just come up with my own nickname for him. Dean too. "This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. It's attracted a poltergeist. A nasty one. And it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead." Okay… poltergeists can hold serious grudges apparently. _Note to self: stay on poltergeist good side! Or just kill them._ "You said there was more than one spirit." Sam reminds us. "There is. I just can't quite make out the second one." Okay, helpful. Let's play the game of Naughty or Nice, things that go bump in the night edition! "Well, one thing's for damn- uh darn?" He looks questioningly at me. I roll my eyes in response. "Damn sure –- nobody's dyin' in this house ever again. So whatever is here, how do we stop it?" But of course, we can't just stay here and fix the problem. "Shotgun?" I ask. Sam just laughs.

* * *

"So, what is all this stuff, anyway?" Dean asks as he puts a mixture of weird stuff into little pouches. "Mud from the deepest point on Earth mixed with bark from the tallest tree. And rock from the top of Mt. Everest." I reply in a mystical sounding voice. Dean rolls his eyes. "Angelica Root, Van Van oil, crossroad dirt, a few other odds and ends." Missouri says seriously. "Yeah? What are we supposed to do with it?" Good question. "We're gonna put them inside the walls in the north, south, east, west corners on each floor of the house." Missouri explains. I swear she'd be making this up if Dean and Sam weren't believing her. "We'll be punchin' holes in the dry wall. Jenny's gonna love that." He ties the last bag shut. "She'll live." "And this'll destroy the spirits?" Sam asks. Do they not know about this either? "It should. It should purify the house completely. We'll each take a floor. But we work fast. Once the spirits realize what we're up to, things are gonna get bad." Wonderful. "Gemma you can come with me. I'll be your bodyguard." Dean grins at me. "Yeah, cause I'm the one that needs protection."

* * *

While Missouri leads Jenny out of the house, makes sure I load my gun right, again. "Come on Dean, I've done this like a million times!" I whine at him. "Besides, aren't you my _bodyguard?" _I say with air quotes. "Whatever, just find a hollow spot, make a hole, and throw it in quickly. Ok?" I nod. "Awesome." We need to talk about that, he says it way too often. "Nervous for your first hunt?" He asks. "Um… I guess a little." I admit. "But it could've been harder I guess. Besides, I have you to back me up. Right?" I say sweetly. "Yeah, let's just get this over with so we can celebrate your first one after." I smile. Time to get going.

Dean and I are in the kitchen looking for the right spot. Just as I'm about to throw the bag in, Dean pushes me away, saving me from a knife that would've rammed into my skull. We grab a table and shove it in front of us as a ton of more kitchen knives pierce through it. With expert aim I toss the bag in the hole I had barely made. "Nice going." Only a few more to go.


	5. Home Pt 2

We just finish up when Dean and I hear a crash upstairs, Sam's floor. We sprint upstairs to find Sam being strangled by a lamp cord. He didn't get to throw the last bag in, but Dean's only focus is getting the cord off of Sam. Fishing into Sam's pocket I grab the last bag left and kick a hole in the wall to throw it in. With a flash of white light, the lamp cord goes limp, and Dean unwraps it from Sam's neck who is gasping for breath. I guess you really do almost die on most hunts.

A few hours later we're standing in the messed up kitchen. "You sure this is over?" Sam asks. "I'm sure. Why? Why do you ask?: Missouri looks genuinely concerned. "Never mind. It's nothin', I guess." We're all giving him weird looks when the door creaks open. "Hello? We're home." She looks around the kitchen. "What happened?" Sam clears his throat. "Hi, sorry. Um, we'll pay for all of this." Dean looks confused. With our fake credit cards? Riiiight. "Don't you worry. Dean's gonna clean up this mess." Missouri says, Dean just stands there. "Well, what are you waiting for, boy? Get the mop." He starts walking away. "And don't cuss at me!" While Dean mutters in annoyance I mumble something along the lines about helping him. An hour later Dean drives to a diner to celebrate my first hunt. Which of course means drinks are on me. Or Jessica Barley. Time to be 21! My first technically legal drink, as my body is fully 21, is cut short by Sam's insistence.

* * *

"I'm all for being thorough on my first hunt and all, but isn't this over? Why are we here?" I ask Sam while we're parked outside of Jenny's house. He sighs. "I don't know. I just…I still have a bad feeling." He replies, because that _totally_ clears everything up. "Why? Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubinstein thing, the house should be clean, it should be over." Dean reasons with him. "Yeah, well, probably. But I just wanna make sure, that's all." Jeez, are they always this thorough? "Yeah, well, problem is I could be sleeping in a bed right now." Dean slides down on the driver's seat closing my eyes. "Yeah, speaking of which, do I get a bed in honor of my first hunt, pull out couches aren't that comfortable even if-" Sam cuts me off. Dean. Gemma. Look, guys! Jenny is standing at her bedroom window screaming. "Well, shit." "You guys grab the kids, I'll get Jenny." Dean directs. I sprint into Ritchie's bedroom and pick him up, meeting Sam in the hallway.

"All right, Sari, take your brother outside as fast as you can, and don't look back." Sam says giving Sari her brother. I cock my gun and trail the kids out the door, just in case. Suddenly I realise Sam isn't behind us. I'm a step out the door when an invisible force pulls him to the ground. Before I can step back inside the door slams shut. I pound the door. "Sam! Sam!" I shout helplessly. I turn to Dean, who is with the family. "Sam's inside!" I shout at him. The blood noticeably drains from his face in understanding as he heads to the secret part of the trunk. With two axes and a rifle in hand he comes to the door and we start pounding. As soon as we get a hole big enough for Dean to go through we run into the kitchen. "Sam? Sam!" Sam is pressed against a wall in the kitchen. The fire thing is coming towards .him. Dean and I raise our guns about to shoot. "No, don't! Don't!" Sam shouts. "What, why?!" Dean exclaims. "Because I know who it is. I can see her now." The fire disappears, and what's left standing is a woman with blond hair in a nightgown. In shock, Dean starts to lower his gun. Are they all insane? I glance at him but keep my gun aimed. "Mom?" Dean whispers. I see it now, the vague resemblance. They are more their father, but the same eyes and soft smile… I lower my gun. "Dean." Mary, their mother says. Tears form in Dean's eyes as she walks over to Sam. Sam smiles weakly, crying. Their mother's smile fades. "I'm sorry." Sam is confused. "For what?" He asks her. She looks at him sadly, but says nothing. She walks away from us and looks up at the ceiling. "You get out of my house. And let go of my son." She commands. Once again, she bursts into flames. When she is entirely engulfed, the fire reaches the ceiling and disappears. The force holding Sam to the wall is released. He walks over to us, and the two of them look at each other, stunned. Their mom. What I would give to see mine. "Now it's over." Sam says quietly.

* * *

The next morning, (I did end up sleeping on the couch much to my annoyance) We come to the old house one last time. Jenny gives Dean the old pictures she was talking about the first time we came. "Thanks for these." Yeah no kidding, Missouri was right, Dean was a goofy looking kid. "Don't thank me, they're yours." Jenny says. Dean is about to put the trunk of photos into the car when I grab them to rifle through them. Wow, these two having a normal life once, like I did, is hard to imagine. I feel bad that Sam really didn't. They're lucky they get photos. All of mine burned in the fire. I twist the only thing that really managed to survive, my ring. It was on my finger when I woke up in the hospital. I'm not sure why or how it was there. Sam and Missouri are talking on the front steps when I put the photos away. "Sam, you ready?" Dean calls as I climb into the back. Sam nods and heads to the car. Jenny thanks all of us once again. "Don't you three be strangers." Missouri calls to us. "We won't." Dean says with a smile. "See you around." Sadly, not likely unless there's another case around here. Even I know that. Jenny waves one last time as we get into the car and drive back to the motel.

"Congrats on your first case _actually _being over." Sam teases lightly. I scoff. "You're just lucky I was here to save your ass from being strangled the first time around Sammy." I say, shoving my laptop into my bag, one of my few possessions other than a couple credit cards and cellphones. Who needs clothes when you're me? "Language!" Dean barks. Like that's going to happen. "And don't call me Sammy." Sam says pointedly. "Fine Samantha." I shoot back. Dean bursts out laughing while Sam glares at me, and then him. "Careful Delilah, Sammy's getting mad." Now they both glare at me as they finish packing up their things. I just smile as I walk out of the room and head into the parking lot and lean on the Impala. They boys are not far behind. "Don't call me that again." Dean says. "It's practically a compliment!" I say. "Yeah how?" Fine. "First off, those are both nice names-" Dean makes a face so I side eye him. "And girls are awesome, so I'm kind of calling you awesome." I point out. "That was all I had in mind!" I protest at their glares. We all climb in the car and Dean quickly puts his music on. Sam and I immediatley protest. "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." Dean barks at us. When you're never the driver, this rule is harder to understand. _Note to self: Buy headphones!_


	6. Asylum

_**Author's Note: From the lack of response, I am going to continue long updates unless a few people comment otherwise. This is going to be two updates at once because I finished one over vacation, but couldn't post it. So enjoy! Other than that, read, (hopefully) follow and favorite. Please comment your thoughts! Thank you!**_

I was lying in Dean's bed while Sam was on the phone. We were trying to get leads on their dad. I twisted my ring, like I always did when I was worried. If Dean noticed, he said nothing.

"No, Dad was in California last we heard from him. We just thought...he comes to you for 'munitions...maybe you've seen him in the last few weeks. Just, call us if you hear anything." Sam sighed and snapped his phone shut. I was starting to be worried and dislike John more and more. If he was in danger, that was one thing, but if not…

"Caleb hasn't heard from him?" Dean sighed.

"Nope. And neither has Jefferson or Pastor Jim. What about the journal? Anything leads in there?" Sam asked hopefully.

"No, same as last time I looked. Nothing I can make out... I love the guy, but I swear, he writes like friggin' Yoda." I immediately think of Sam's chicken scrawl.

"So that's where you get it." I say pointedly at him. He rolls his eyes.

"You know, maybe we should call the Feds. File a missing person's." Sam says.

"We've talked about this. Dad'd be pissed if we put the Feds on his tail." Dean reminds him.

" Do you even care at this point?" I interject. "I mean, he might already be pissed when he meets me! As long as he's safe then who cares?" Sam nods.

"After all that happened back in Kansas, I mean...he should've been there, Dean. You said so yourself. You tried to call him and...nothing."

"I know!" Dean says as he walks over to his duffle. His phone's muffled ringing is the only sound for a moment. "Where the hell is my cellphone?" Dean mutters, digging.

"You know, he could be dead for all we know." Sam sighs, defeated.

"Well that's optimistic." I mumble. Dean doesn't mumble.

"Don't say that! He's not dead!" He says defensively. "He's – he's…" He struggles to think about what could hold him from answering his damn phone.

"He's what? He's hiding? He's _busy_?" Sam scoffs. Dean flips open his cell phone.

"I don't believe it." He says softly. I sit up. "What?" Sam asks. "It's uh, it's a text message." He says, sitting down. "It's coordinates."

Dean pulls out his laptop to check the coordinates. I pull out mine and check on the world map just in case. Nothing but water. Dean, on the other hand, get's a location. Rockford, Illinois.

"You think Dad was texting us?" Sam asks. "What has he never before?" I say. They ignore me.

"He's given us coordinates before." Dean points out.

"The man can barely work a _toaster_, Dean." Sam says. How does the man find cases?

"Sam, it's good news! It means he's okay, or alive at least." Are any hunters ever okay really? And, I hate to be the one to think this, what if it wasn't even him? Sam appears to be thinking on the same path.

"Well, was there a number on the caller ID?"

"Nah, it said 'unknown'." Dean replies.

"Well, where do the coordinates point?" Sam asks, unable to hide his interest. A question I can answer, finally. "Rockford, Illinois. And that's where it gets interesting." I add.

"Ok, and that's interesting how?" While those two were chatting, I pulled up the local Rockford paper.

"Here," I say, shoving the screen towards them. "Take a look." This cop, Walter Kelly, comes home from his shift, shoots his wife, then puts the gun in his mouth, blows his brains out. And earlier that night, Kelly and his partner responded to a call at the Roosevelt Asylum. The boys read in silence.

"Okay, I'm not following. What has this have to do with us?" Sam asks.

"Well it _could_ be a hunt." I say. I know it's a long shot, but maybe that's what the coordinates were for. Dean looks up in surprise before picking up the journal.

"Dad earmarked the same asylum in the journal. Let's see…" He flips through it before finding the right page. "Here." Sam and I peer over his shoulders. "Seven unconfirmed sightings, two deaths – till last week at least. I think this is where he wants us to go." Sam snorts.

"This is a job... Dad wants us to work a job." Dean refuses to give up hope.

"Well, maybe we'll meet up with him? Maybe he's there?" Yeah, that'll go over well. What if I get injured? Whatever happens, John will find out. If they boys don't tell him in the first place.

"Maybe he's not? I mean, he could be sending us there, by ourselves, to hunt this thing." Sam points out.

"Who cares! If he wants us there, it's good enough for me!" Dean says, trying to finish the conversation.

"This doesn't strike you as weird? The texting? The coordinates?" Sam asks.

"Sam! Dad's telling' us to go somewhere, we're _goin'_." So we go.

My bag is the first one packed, as usual, so I wait outside by the car. Though scared of John killing me as soon as he finds out, I'm happy that we might find him. That he _might _be waiting for us, or them really. They have family left and they should keep it that way. I glance at my watch. What is taking them so long? Are they having a good cry about their father or something? Just as I think this, they bound out the door.

"_There _you are. Finally!" I moan. "Yeah, well, when you have clothes it takes a little longer to pack." Dean shoots back.

"Then just materialize new ones! Oh, wait. I'm sorry you're not as cool as me." They both glare at me before getting in the car. What they don't know is that I see a smile pass through them, for the moment, the weight of the situation is forgotten. Mission accomplished.

* * *

We make a plan at the motel. We need to know what the other cop saw that night. Soon, Dean walks into the bar. Sam and I trail behind. Dean sits down across from Daniel. I make my hearing better and focus in on them.

"You're Daniel Gunderson. You're a cop, right?" Dean asks.

"Yeah." Gunderson says uneasily.

"Huh. I'm uh, Nigel Tufnel, The Chicago Tribune. Mind if I ask you a couple of questions, about your partner?" Dean says. So far so good.

"Yeah, I do. I'm just tryin' to have a beer here." Dean presses one more time.

"That's okay, I swear it won't take that long. I just want to get the story in your words." The cop is angry.

"A week ago, my partner was sitting in that chair. Now he's dead. You gonna ambush me _here_?" I motion at Sam to start moving. Dean keeps playing his part.

"Sorry. But I need to know what happened." Sam pushes Dean aside roughly, a little harder than necessary.

"Hey buddy, why don't you leave the poor guy alone! The man's an officer! Why don't you show a little respect!" Sam spits out. Dean pauses, staring, then walks off. A minute later I follow.

"Well that went well." I say, walking over to Dean. He's leaning on the Impala waiting for me.

"If Sam gets the info then sure." Dean grunts. Such pessimists those two.

"It was a smart move to make you the annoying one. Not much acting for you." I say slyly. Dean gets a murderous look in his eye just as Sam walks out, distracting him.

"Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy." He says, annoyed.

"I had to sell it, didn't I? It's method acting." I'm about to laugh when I realize Dean doesn't get it, that of course makes me want to laugh harder, but I manage to just cough.

"So what'd you find out from Gunderson?" I quickly change the subject. Sam is grateful.

"So, Walter Kelly was a good cop. Head of his class, even-keeled, he had a bright future ahead of him." Dean is unconvinced.

"What about at home?" Even more good (or bad speaking on a case level) news.

"He and his wife had a few fights, like everybody, but he was mostly smooth sailing. They were even talking about having kids." Dean weighs the options as only he he could.

"Alright, so either Kelly had some deep-seated crazy waiting to bust out, or something else did it to him."

"Ding ding ding." I say.

"What'd Gunderson tell you about the asylum?" Dean asks. Sam smiles.

"A lot."

* * *

We break in. It really isn't that hard. You'd think they'd up security measures instead of getting calls every weekend. Whatever. Easier for us. We climb the fence, and head into the asylum.

"So apparently the cops chased the kids here...into the south wing." He says, motioning at the sign.

"South wing, huh? Wait a second." Dean says, looking for the article in their dad's journal. "1972. Three kids broke into the south wing, only one survived. Way he tells it, one of his friends went nuts and started lighting up the place." Weird.

"So whatever's going on, the south wing is the heart of it." Sam says.

"But if the kids are spelunking the asylum, why aren't there a ton more deaths?" Dean asks. I look around.

"The doors are supposed to be chained. Could've been chained up for years." I say holding the broken one outside the door.

"Yeah, to keep people out." He pauses. "Or to keep something in." Of course, after Dean says that, Sam's next logical move is to open the door.

We walk down the hallway quietly, looking around.

"Let me know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel." Dean laughs. Here we go again. Cue Sam's annoyance.

"Dude, enough." And now Dean tries to be half serious half funny.

"I'm serious. You gotta be careful, all right? Ghosts are attracted to that whole ESP thing you got going on." Sam is getting defensive now.

"I told you, it's not ESP! I just have strange vibes sometimes. Weird dreams." Now Dean tries to be funny one last time before Sam ends the conversation.

"Yeah, whatever. Don't ask, don't tell." Okay, that's uncalled for. "Not funny." Dean looks at me in surprise.

"Oh, are you?-" I don't let him finish.

"No, but don't be an ass."

"You get any reading on that thing or not?" Sam asks about the just as Dean and I are about to have an argument about this.

"Nope. Of course, it doesn't mean no one's home." Sam answers my questioning look.

"Spirits can't appear during certain hours of the day." He explains. It's only my second case after all.

"Yeah, the freaks come out at night." Dean says to me.

"Ah." We keep walking.

"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic: Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?" Dean asks. Sam hits him, but that doesn't stop Dean's laughter. What children.

We stumble on another room. We look around. There appears to be, uh, torture instruments around. And that's putting it nicely.

"Man. Electro-shock. Lobotomies. They did some twisted stuff to these people. Kinda like my man Jack in Cuckoo's Nest." Dean says. He grins at Sam, who's looking at me worriedly. I guess he expected me to be more scared. "

So. Whaddaya think? Ghosts possessing people?" Dean asks us.

"Maybe. Or maybe it's more like Amityville, or the Smurl haunting." I didn't see either of those movies. That was B.Y. Before yellow-eyes.

"Spirits driving them insane. Kinda like my man Jack in The Shining." Dean grins again.

"Dean." Sam says, glancing at me. "When are we going to talk about it?" Dean looks at him.

"Talk about what?" He asks innocently.

"About the fact Dad's not here." Oh, that. Kind of surprising Sam mentions it in front of me.

"Oh. I see. How 'bout...never." Dean says, annoyed.

"I'm being serious, man. He sent us here…" They both glance at me. I decide against talking. Or making eye contact for that matter.

"So am I, Sam. Look, he sent us here, he obviously wants us here. We'll pick up the search later." He tries to drop the conversation.

"It doesn't matter what he wants." Sam says.

"See? That attitude? Right there? That is why I always get the extra cookie." Dean says. Their personal relationship with their father is weird. Dean seems like the rebellious one, and Sam the good boy. Yet Dean follows his father's orders more. Sam even stopped hunting and went to college. I'm starting to figure out the Winchesters.

"Dad could be in trouble, we should be looking for him. We deserve some answers, Dean. I mean, this is our," again I earn a sideways look "family we're talking about."

"I understand that, Sam, but he's given us an order." Dean says. "So what, we gotta always follow Dad's orders?" Technically, as they are over 18, no. And I never had to. But Dean doesn't think that way.

"Of course we do." He says. Sam looks frustrated, but says nothing, so Dean turns away.

"Uh, guys?" I say awkwardly.

"Yeah Gemma?" Dean asks. I hand him a name plate. It says Sanford Ellicott on it.

"You know what we gotta do. We gotta find out more about the south wing. See if something happened here." Dean says. He gives the sign to Sam and walks out. I glance at him before following Dean out the door.

* * *

They almost voted me to go to the psychiatrists office. Dr. James Ellicott. They claimed I could look more innocent, and had experience with one before. That was one of the things they remembered from my file, it didn't help that Sam had talked to her. When I threatened to say everything about our hunts so I'd be put in a mental facility, they gave in. So instead it was Sam, who looks more innocent than Dean does. While Sam goes in, Dean and I wait outside. We don't really talk, and the silence is uncomfortable. I may hunt with them, and so far I trust them enough, they're a little hesitant, especially Sam, but he's ok with me being around. But we're not… close. Sure we make fun of each other, but that's all we do. Crazy as it sounds, I want to be closer. Not just trusting, but… famliy. That sounds stupid. And I wouldn't admit it. But I don't have anyone left. They have each other, and their father technically. I want that feeling back. Where else could I get it? Dean cuts into my thoughts.

"So, uh," He coughs awkwardly. "How are you holding up? With the, uh, the hunting thing." I'm a little surprised he asked.

"Um, fine. I guess." I am. I feel older, not 11. More like, 20, mentally.

"Sam, he didn't want you to hunt. Neither did I really, at first. But, uh, you're… smart. You saved Sam's life by putting that bag in the wall, at our old house. I might not've thought of that in time, before he died." He chokes out. "So, uh, if you're ok, I think it would be a good idea for you to keep coming with us. Hunting. The family business." He finishes awkwardly. I knew I was still on probation and all, but what he said. Family business. I know that wasn't necessarily directed at me, but still. For the first time in a while, I really smile. Not half smile, at something Dean said to Sam, but actually. I realize I need to answer.

"Yeah, yes. I do want to keep hunting. With you guys." Very eloquent. What's wrong with me? He smiles a little too. Of course, I think Sam needs to agree, but whatever.

Right after the best and most awkward conversation ever, Sam walks out.

"Dude! You were in there forever. What the hell were you talking about?" Dean asks.

"Just the hospital, you know." Oh, please.

"A psychiatrist wouldn't just have you talk about the hospital the entire time. You would've _had_ to talk about something else." I say.

"Oh, uh, not much. Anyway, the South wing? It's where the housed the really hard cases. The psychotics, the criminally insane." He continued.

"Sounds cozy." Dean says.

"Yeah. And one night in '64, they rioted. Attacked staff. Attacked each other." Wow, how did the staff let that one happen?

"So the patients took over the asylum?" Dean asks.

"Apparently."

"Any deaths?" I ask.

"Some patients, some staff. I guess it was pretty gory. Some of the bodies were never even recovered, including our chief of staff, Ellicott." Ouch, talk about a backfire on all of those torturing things.

"Whaddaya mean, never recovered?" Dean asks.

"Cops scoured every inch of the place but I guess the patients must've...stuffed the bodies somewhere hidden." Okay ew.

"Yeah. So, they transferred all the remaining patients and closed the hospital down." Sam explains.

"So, to sum it up, we've got a bunch of violent deaths and a bunch of unrecovered bodies." Dean says.

"And a bunch of angry spirits." Sam points out. Lovely.

"Huh, good times. Let's check out the hospital tonight." Dean walks towards the Impala. Well then, _this_ will be fun.


	7. Asylum Pt 2

I decide to sleep while I can. Nothing worse than hunting while tired! We break in again, hopefully for the last time. Dean pulls out the EMF, and Sam has a camera. I just have the flashlight. We turn and head down the hall.

"Getting readings?" Sam asks Dean.

"Yeah, big time." The EMF is going nuts.

"This place is orbing like crazy." Sam says as we look into the camera. "Well there's probably a ton of spirits just around." I say.

"And if these uncovered bodies are causing the haunting…" Sam starts.

"We gotta find 'em and burn 'em. Just be careful though. The only thing that makes me more nervous than a pissed off spirit... is the pissed off spirit of a psycho killer." Dean says. I wish we could just burn the building down. Unfortunately that might not finish off all the ghosts. Not to mention we'd have the authorities on our asses. We continue down the hallway.

Sam is looking in a room with the camera while I follow Dean down the hallway. Only a minute later we hear him yell.

"Dean? Dean!" We look at each other for a split second before bursting into the room. Dean pulls out the salt gun just as Sam yells for it.

"Sam get down!" I shout, pulling him to the side as Dean shoots. She disintegrates. We look around the room, natural instinct to check I guess. Sam is the first to speak.

"That was weird." He says.

"Yeah. You're telling me." Dean says, walking out of the room.

"No, Dean, I mean it was weird that she didn't attack me." Sam explains. Dean and I walked in I assume seconds after she appeared, but I guess she was only slowly walking towards him. Still, spirits are spirits.

"Looked pretty aggro from where I was standing." Dean says dismissively.

"She didn't hurt me. She didn't even try! So if she didn't wanna hurt me then what did she want?" Sam presses. He's interrupted by a clang from the room we're walking pass. A bed is turned over, and the room is kind of messed up. Left from the riot? Or maybe…

I turn on the flashlight and Dean raises the salt gun. He motions to Sam to move the bed. On the other side is… a… girl? Human, that is. She spins around, gasping in shock. She's very clearly been crying, and is terrified. Dean and Sam are lost for words, what is she doing here? I push the salt gun down, so it's no longer aiming at the girl.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, we're not going to hurt you, okay?" She nods, still looking scared.

"Um, what's your name?" She stands up.

"Katherine, Kat." She says.

"Okay, I'm Dean, this is Sam and Gemma." Dean speaks up.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asks, sounding panicked. Smooth, really.

"Um. My boyfriend, Gavin."

"Is he here?" Dean asks.

"Somewhere." Shit.

"He thought it would be fun, try and see some ghosts. I thought it was all just...you know. Pretend. I've seen things. I heard Gavin scream and…" Double shit.

"Alright. Kat? Come on. Sam's gonna get you out of here and then we're gonna find your boyfriend." Dean explains calmly.

"No! No. I'm not going to leave without Gavin. I'm coming with you." Kat says. Seriously? I mean if he's still alive they had better get married. Risking death for a teenage fling would be stupid.

"It's no joke around here, okay. It's dangerous." Dean protests.

"That's why I gotta find him." I sigh, but we're getting nowhere standing here, and Dean must realize this too.

"Alright, I guess we gonna split up then. Let's go."

* * *

Dean and Katherine go together, and Sam and I head in the opposite direction.

"Gavin? Gavin!" I call, my voice echoing through the hall. I swear, if he isn't alive…

Sam taps me on the shoulder, and points into a room. A teenage boy is lying, hopefully, unconscious. Lightly, Sam crouches down and shakes him. One point to hunters! He wakes up.

"Hey, Gavin. It's okay, I'm here to help." Sam says, noticing the terror on Gavin's face.

"Who are you?" He asks shakily. "My name is Sam, this is Gemma. Uh, we found your girlfriend." He explains.

"Kat?" He says, getting up. "Is she alright?" Despite the stupid idea to come here, he seems nice.

"Yep. She's worried about you, but fine. Are you okay?" I ask.

"I was running. I think I fell." He says. "You were running from what?" Sam asks.

"There was...there was this girl. Her face. It was all messed up." Gavin says.

"Okay listen, did this girl... did she try and hurt you?" Sam asks.

"What? No, she...uh…" He seems embarrassed.

"She…" I start.

"She...kissed me." Gavin blurts out. Okay, I haven't been a hunter for long, my only other case was a ghost and a poltergeist, and from that and what I've read, kissing isn't in a ghost's top ten activities.

"Uh...um…but...but she didn't hurt you, physically?" Sam asks awkwardly.

"Dude! She kissed me. I'm scarred for life!

"I guess she was a bad kisser." I mumble, so only Sam can hear me. He smiles weakly.

"Now do you remember anything else?" Sam asks.

"She uh...actually, she tried to whisper something in my ear."

"What?"

"I don't know. I ran like hell." Great.

* * *

We run down the hall to where Dean is desperately trying to open a door with a crowbar.

"What's going on?!" Sam shouts to Dean. "She's inside with one of them!" He yells back, grunting in frustration.

I glance at Gavin and sigh. "Move over." I tell Dean, making myself noticeably stronger. Gavin looks like he's going to faint. Worse yet, nothing came out of it. Way to scar the kid more!

"Get me out of here!" Kat shouts. "Kat!" Gavin calls pointlessly.

"Kat, it's not going to hurt you! Listen to me, you've got to face it. You've gotta calm down!" Sam says.

"She's gotta what?" Dean asks.

"I have to what?"

"These spirits, they're not trying to hurt us! They're trying to communicate. You gotta face it. You gotta listen to it." Sam explains. What's he talking about?

"You face it!" Kat shouts with a tremor in her voice.

"No! It's the only way to get out of there!" He yells back.

"No!"

"Look at it! Come on you can do it!" It's silent for a second.

"Kat?" Gavin asks.

"Man I hope you're right about this." Dean says. Sam looks at him.

"Yeah, me too." That's comforting. We stand at the door in silence, waiting. The door clicks and Dean steps back. Kat stands there, pale as a - well.

"Oh, Kat." Gavin breathes. She appears okay. Dean and Sam check the room, finding nothing. Kat whispers something.

"Hmm?"

"It whispered in my ear, 137." She says. Dean and Sam look at each other.

"Room number." They say in synch. Dean and Sam walk over to the wall to talk, I start to follow them when Gavin stops me.

"What - what was that?" He asks. Oh yeah, my magical muscle gaining.

"It's... a long story. But I'm human, if that's what you meant." I explain awkwardly.

"What, what are you guys talking about." Kat asks. Well, they've seen enough... why not. I sigh, and turn my hair green. Kat gasps, and Gavin's eyes widen. I turn my hair back to normal.

"It's just a thing." I shrug. Turning, I speed walk to the brothers.

"Um, they know. Just thought, for future reference, you should know." I say with a frown.

"Way to scar them more." Dean says sarcastically. I snort.

"You're just jealous." I stick my tongue out.

"So, now, you guys ready to leave this place?" Dean says to Kat and Gavin.

"That's an understatement." Kat says.

"Okay, you get them out of here, Gem and I will go find room 137." Sam nods in agreement. I don't like splitting up, but we have to get them out of here. We head in opposite directions, salt guns loaded.

We find the room and head into it. Kicking the furniture blocking the door out of the way. We look around in silence, for info, and the doctors bones. Hopefully that's what the ghosts were telling us. After a few minutes, Dean finds a loose panel, and pries it off. Behind it is a satchel full of papers. He grins at me.

"This is why I get payed the big bucks." I roll my eyes and pull two chairs to the desk. Dean tosses the satchel down and we start looking.

Inside, there's a journal with notes and drawn medical instruments.

"All work and no play makes Dr. Ellicott a _very _dull boy." After going through the papers, we head back to meet Sam.

"So the basement?" I say.

"Yep, hidden procedure room, just gotta find Sammy, the bones, then salt and burn." He says.

"And then nap, and go to a pancake place, because nothing makes you hungrier than running around creepy, empty hallways in an old asylum." He laughs. "Deal."

We're just rounding the corner to where we assume Sam is when a gunshot sounds. It hits the wall, but would've hit me if Dean hadn't pulled me back.

"Damn it, damn it, don't shoot! It's just me and Gemma!" Dean shouts.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Kat says. Wait, Kat?

"Son of a... What are you still doing here? And where's Sam?" Dean asks.

"He went to the basement, you called him." Gavin says.

"We didn't call anybody." I say stepping forward.

"His cell phone rang, he said it was you." Kat says. Okay, now that's weird.

"Basement, huh?" Dean says. "Gem, you stay with these two, I'll go find Sam." He says, grabbing extra weapons.

"Because splitting up works so well." I say. He gives me a look. "Whatever." I say, my hands up.

"Alright, watch yourselves. And watch out for me." He runs off.

"Nice shot." I say to Kat.

A few minutes later, a gunshot rings through the building. I shoot upright. "That's my cue!" I grab an extra salt gun, tossing it to Kat. "You know what to do?" I ask. She nods. "Good." Just in case I grab my real gun. You never know.

"Be careful!" I call to them, running towards the stairs. Those idiots better not be dead.

I run to the basement when I hear the boys speaking. I step into the room in relief, but horror soon replaces it. Sam is on top of Dean, pointing a gun at Dean's head. I'm about to shoot Sam with my salt gun when Dean sees me, and points one finger up. Wait. Why? What is he doing?

"You hate me that much? You think you could kill your own brother? Then go ahead. Pull the trigger. Do it!" Dean says. Silently I walk towards them. Before Sam pulls it I'll tackle him and then knock him out and... _Click. _I'm too late, he pulled it. But the gun's empty.

"Man, I'm not going to give you a loaded pistol!" I take Sam's confusion as a good time to shove him off Dean. Dean then punches him to knock him out. He pats Sam's unconscious body.

"Sorry Sammy." He looks at me. "Time to burn those bones." We poke around the room, and finally Dean finds them. "Gemma! Over here!" He calls. I wince at the disgusting remains.

"Soak it up." Dean says. And then a gurney slams into us both.

I think I'm out for a few seconds, and when I wake my leg is trapped, not for long anyway. But I don't have time, Ellicott is on top of Dean. Straining, I reach the salt gun and point it at him. He dissolves, giving Dean a second to grab the lighter and toss it into the cabinet where the bones are. Ellicott reappears only to find himself burning while I free myself. Dean pushes away as Ellicott falls to the ground. His spirit is dead.

I stumble over to Dean just as Sam wakes up. Dean stares at him.

"You're not going to try to kill me, are you?" He asks gruffly. Sam winces, rubbing his jaw.

"No."

"Good. Because that would be awkward."

We head back to Kat and Gavin, and make our way out of the asylum. We stop outside. They talk as I load the car, organizing it. Eventually Kat and Gavin leave.

"Hey Dean?" Sam says. We both look at him. "I'm sorry man. I said some awful things back there."

"You remember all that?" Dean asks. I wonder what. If only I could read minds.

"Yeah. It's like I couldn't control it. But I didn't mean it, any of it." I decide on getting in the car. I missed the moment anyway, and Sam kept glancing at me. All I want to do is sleep.

Dean's cell phone wakes me several hours later.

"Deeeeeeeeeeeeean!" I groan. He doesn't stir. Sam does, and answers the phone. I almost fade back to sleep when Sam speaks again.

"Dad?"


	8. Scarecrow

_**Author's Note: Hi! Still going episode by episode, though I have to post half a chapter at a time. Hope to keep it up when school starts!**_

Dean still didn't wake up. I, however, ran over to Sam and tried to listen in.

"Dad? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Then why didn't he call? Or answer the phone?

"We've been looking for you everywhere! We didn't know where you were, if you were okay." Sam is annoyed.

"Sammy, I'm all right. What about you and Dean." Not to mention their plus one. Dean finally wakes up.

"We're fine dad, where are you?" Dean sits up in alarm.

"Sorry kiddo I can't tell you that."

"What? Why not?"

"Is that dad?" Everyone's talking at once. I nod at Dean, mouthing "I think so." I turn back to the phone.

"You're after it, aren't you, the thing that killed mom." The way Sam says it, it's not really a question.

"Yeah, it's a demon Sam." A demon. A demon that's been killing families and giving babies some sort of drug. Or something along those lines.

"A demon? You know for sure?"

"A demon? What's he saying?" Dean says. Sam ignores him. I sit on Dean's bed.

"He said a demon killed your mom, and, well, I guess my family."

"You know where it is?" Sam asks, he pauses. "Let us help. Why not?" Dean's had enough.

"Give me the phone." He says. Sam ignores him again.

"Names? What names? Dad?" Talk to me, tell me what's going on!" John says something. "No! Alright? No way!"

"Give me the phone!" Dean repeats, after a few seconds he takes it, leaving Sam annoyed.

"Dad it's me. Where are you? ... Yes sir ... Yeah, I got a pen. What are their names?" He just gives in, like that. Not questioning their dad, like Sam did. And he didn't mention me, neither of them did. Maybe that's for the best anyway.

* * *

That night, we're in the car, on the way to Indiana. Sam is driving. Basically, all the names were couples, they all went on road trips, and all went missing. Each pair stopped in a town in Indiana on the second week of April that year. This is the second week of April. I'm about to fall asleep when Sam pulls the car over.

"What are you doing?" Dean asks as I sigh and sit up.

"We're not going to Indiana." Sam says.

"Sorry if I missed something, but what?" I ask.

"We're going to California. Dad called from a pay phone, Sacramento area code." Of course Sam figured that out, of course he did.

"Sam," Dean starts.

"Dean, if this demon killed mom, Jess, and Gemma's family, and dad's closing in, we've gotta be there. We've gotta help!" I can't help but slightly agree with Sam, I do want to track down this thing. But their dad...

"Dad doesn't want us there." Dean says, as if that finishes it.

"I don't care."

"He's given us an order." Dean says. I decide against mentioning that he technically didn't give me an order.

"I don't care. We don't always have to do what he says." Sam says firmly.

"Sam, dad is asking us to work jobs, to save lives. It's important." Dean argues.

"Alright, I understand, believe me, I understand. But I'm taking one week here, man, to get answers. To get revenge." Dean sighs

"Alright, look, I know how you feel." He says.

"Do you?" Sam asks. "How old were you when mom died? Four? Jess died six months ago!" I can't stand it anymore.

"I do." I say quietly. "Hell, I have it worse! I lost my entire family. What if you missed my case. What if you passed it over? Or hadn't found me? I'd likely be dead. Or at least alone. You still have people, you still have family." Sam sighs and shakes his head.

"I'm sorry, but we need to go."

"Dad said it wasn't safe, for any of us. I mean, he obviously knows something we don't, so if he says stay away, we stay away." Dean says.

"I don't understand the blind faith you have in the man! It's like you don't even question him." Sam says. Dean scoffs.

"Yeah it's called being a good son."

Sam gets out of the car and opens the trunk. Dean and I follow.

"You're a selfish bastard, you know that? You just do whatever you want. Don't care what anybody thinks." Dean says, I think that might be crossing the line.

"That's what you really think?" Sam asks.

"Well not exactly, but -" Dean cuts me off.

"Yes it is."

Sam scoffs. "Well than this selfish bastard is going to California." He slings a backpack over his shoulder and starts walking away.

"Sam, don't do this." I plead. Why won't he just stay?

"It's the middle of the night! Hey, I'm taking off, I will leave your ass. You hear me!" Sam stops walking, there's hope.

"That's what I want you to do." He says. Dean slams the trunk shut and gets into the car. I get in the backseat.

"Did you mean what you said?" Dean asks a minute later. "About your family?" Uh-oh.

"Um, you know, kind of, but it was mainly so Sam would say." There's a base of truth in every lie.

"Uh, okay. Why don't you get some sleep." Dean says awkwardly. I lie down. Yeah, right, like I'll get any sleep now.

* * *

We get to Burkittsville the next day. I notice Dean about to call Sam, but doesn't go through with it. We get out at a diner.

"Let me guess," Dean says, pointing at a man sitting in the porch of the diner. "Scotty." I look at the sign, Scotty's Diner. Scotty doesn't think that's funny.

"Yep." He replies blandly. Fun guy.

"Hi, I'm John Bonham."

"And I'm Lindsay." The guy ignores me and looks at Dean.

"Isn't that the drummer for Led Zeppelin?" He asks. I step in.

"Yeah, he gets that a lot." I say, stepping closer to Dean.

"Anyway, what can I do for you, John and Lindsay?" Dean takes out the missing person flyers for the Parkers.

"We were wondering if you'd seen these people by chance." Scotty looks at the flyers, and I think I see a recognition, but I guess I must be wrong.

"Nope, who are they?" He says.

"Friends of ours. They went missing about a year ago. They passed through somewhere around here, and we've already asked around Scottsburg and Salem -" I start.

"Sorry. We don't get many strangers around here." He passes the papers back to Dean.

"Scotty, you've got a smile that lights up the room, anybody ever tell you that?" Dean says. I try really hard not to laugh. The sarcasm sometimes, I swear. The best part is that Scotty just stares at him.

"Thank you!" I say, pulling Dean away. I manage a few feet before I start laughing.

* * *

We go to the gas station next, where we seem to be striking out again.

"You're sure they didn't stop for gas or something?" Dean asks again. I show Harley and Stacy the flyers again.

"Nope, don't remember 'em. You said they were friends of yours?" The Harley asks.

"Yep." I nod. A girl comes down the stairs carrying boxes.

"Did the guy have a tattoo?" She asks.

"Yeah, he did." Dean says.

"How did you know?" I ask, handing her the flyers.

"Remember? They were just married." The girl says. Harley suddenly remembers.

"You're right. They did stop for gas. Weren't here for more than ten minutes." That's something.

"Do you remember anything else?" Dean asks.

"Well I told them how to get back to the interstate, they left town." Finally some helpful information!

"Can you point us in that direction?" Dean says.

"Sure."

* * *

On the way out of town there's some orchard, we're almost there when a noise emits from the backseat.

"Dean. Road." I say as he turns to get it. I reach back, admittedly making my arm a leeetle longer, and grab the EMF, which is beeping. Dean pulls the car over and we look around. Just open road around us. Weird. He starts the engine up again.

* * *

We get to the orchard and start taking a look around.

"Hey, look." Dean says to me. A scarecrow is hung on a post. I follow Dean over to it.

"Dude, you're fugly." Dean says to it.

"Hey, for all you know that's the spirit of the scarecrow from the wizard of oz." I joke. He rolls his eyes.

"What's that on the arm?" Dean says. I grab the ladder from the nearest apple tree.

"Why don't you find out?"

Dean climbs and I take out my phone. Sam and Dean are one of the few numbers I have. I almost call Sam. Just to tell him how we're doing. Hint how much Dean misses him. Too soon Dean starts climbing down.

"I think that's Vince." He says.

"What?"

"Same tattoo on the arm." He explains.

"Ugh, think it changes every year?" I ask.

"Not this year it won't." With that, we head back into town.

* * *

Dean pulls into the gas station, where the girl from earlier is standing out front.

"You're back." She says, mostly to Dean.

"Never left."

"Are you guys still looking for your friends?" The girl asks in concern. Dean nods.

"Would you mind filling her up there Emily?" Dean says. I notice her necklace, sure enough it says Emily.

"So, did you grow up here?" I ask, going for conversational.

"I came here when I was thirteen. I lost my parents, car accident. My aunt and uncle took me in." Emily explains.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I say. "I know the feeling."

"They're nice people." Dean says.

"Everybody's nice here." Emily says with a smile. Well, except for the evil thing in their backyard.

"So what, it's the, uh, perfect little town?" Dean asks.

"Well, you know, it's the boonies, but I love it. I mean, the towns around us, people are losing their homes, their farms. But here, it's almost like we're blessed." She says blissfully. Blessed, huh? Maybe some witchcraft? That wouldn't explain the scarecrow though.

"Hey, have you been out to the orchard? Seen that scarecrow?" He asks.

"Yeah it creeps me out." She says.

"Do you know who owns it?" I ask.

"I don't know, its just always been there." Emily says. I nod.

"Weird."

"Is that your aunt and uncle's?" Dean asks, gesturing towards a red van.

"Customer, they had some car troubles." She says.

"Is it a couple? A guy and a girl?" I ask. She looks at me.

"Uh, yeah." She says uneasily.

"Well, thanks." Dean says as Emily pulls the pump out. Dean pays and we leave.

"Let's go find that couple."


	9. Scarecrow Pt 2

We head back to the diner, and sit down, a table away from a couple, maybe… _the _couple?

"How ya' doing?" Dean asks. "Just passing through?" They smile.

"Road trip!" The girl says.

"Really? Us too!" I say. Scotty walks in to refill the couples cider.

"I'm sure these people just want to eat in peace." He grumbles. What, did he hear us laughing earlier?

"So, what brings you to town?" Dean asks.

"Oh, we just stopped for gas, the guy at the station saved our lives." That sounds, strange.

"Oh, wow. What happened?" I ask.

This time the guy answers. "One of our brake lines was leaking. We had no idea. He's fixing it for us."

"Glad he caught it." I say.

"So how long till you're up and running?" Dean asks.

"Sundown." The guy answers.

"Really." Dean looks confused. "To fix a brake line?" The guy nods, and Dean leans towards him. "I mean, I know a thing or two about cars. I could have you up and running in about an hour. I wouldn't charge you anything." The couple smiles uneasily.

"You know, thanks a lot, but I think we'd rather have a mechanic do it." The girl says. Something's up, I bet Dean is right about that brake line.

"Actually, John's on his way to a new job, he is a mechanic!" I say.

"Well, it's already being taken care of, so." Wow, a real mechanic offering free and faster service doesn't sway people. I guess Dean doesn't look like one.

"Sure, I know." Dean says. He pauses. "You know, it's just that these roads. They're not real safe at night." The couple looks uncomfortable.

"Uh, _John._" I say, straining my voice on his fake name. He ignores me.

"I know it sounds strange, but, uh, you might be in danger." He says quietly to the couple. They are really uncomfortable now, not to mention annoyed.

"Look, we're trying to eat. Okay?" The guy says. I kick Dean's foot under the table. He glares at me.

"Yeah. You know, my brother could give you this puppy dog look, and you'd just buy right into it." I know what look he means. I've seen it directed at me a few too many times. I kind of miss it. But we have bigger problems. Scotty and the Sheriff are standing at the door. I doubt they're talking about the sweet couple who's just passing through town. I kick Dean again and look at the door. Now he notices, just as they're walking over.

"I'd like a word please." The sheriff says.

"Come on. I'm having a bad day already." Dean sighs.

"You don't want to make it worse." The sheriff says.

"Hey, did I do something wrong? Cause I really want that apple pie." I say, the sheriff doesn't answer. "Speaking of which I know my rights, and what _did_ we do wrong? What law did we break? You know, this is kind of stupid, I'm not allowed to show people pictures and talk to them?" I ask. Technically, I'm right. I didn't _really_ do anything wrong. Nonetheless, the sheriff follows us out of town, making sure we leave.

* * *

We sneak back to the orchard, waiting for the couple to show up, as we're sure they'll have to stop here. After loading the shotguns, we don't have much time to wait to wait.

"I'm, I'm sorry about Sam, and everything." I say before losing the guts to say so. "I think he'll come back." Dean nods.

"Thanks, Gem." I think he's about to say something more when we hear a car. To be safe, we head into the orchard. Sure enough, the car breaks down in front of the orchard, and who gets out? The couple we talked to earlier of course.

"Don't head into the orchard. Don't do it. Have you ever seen a horror movie? Don't do it. don't you dare." I whisper. But of course, they do. They wander in, talking quietly to each other, until they hear a noise. And it's not us. The scarecrow.

"Who's there?" The guy says, shakily, as they clutch each other. Suddenly the scarecrow appears from behind the trees. They start running. I nod at Dean, and we come out.

"Get back to your car." Dean says, getting ready to shoot the scarecrow. "Go, go! Gem, go with them." Dean says. I push them along out of the orchard. Dean starts shooting, but the scarecrow only stumbles. He runs after us, still firing. I turn and start shoot at it a couple of times in the leg, in hopes of slowing it down. Dean grabs my arm as we follow the couple back to the car. Dean and I turn, taking the safety off our guns again. The scarecrow doesn't appear.

"What—what the hell was that?" The guy says breathlessly.

"Don't ask."

* * *

Dean has a theory. The townspeople give the scarecrow, a Pagan God, a sacrifice each year. Which is why it's always a boy and a girl. They give the people tons of food, and send them on their way towards the orchard. Scarecrow God gets its sacrifice, the town does well. Crops don't wilt, disease doesn't spread. I hitchhike back into town to get a motel room while Dean goes to a local college to meet with a professor. I think the real reason he wants to split up is so he can call Sam in privacy. After he finds out what the God is, Dean will sneak back into town, pick me up, and we'll kill it. Nice and easy. Luckily, we didn't go to the local motel, so it's easy to get a room.

"Pagan gods, sacrifice, crops, disease, scarecrow…" I say to myself, searching website after website. After a while, I glance at my watch. Hm, I thought Dean would've called, or be back by now. I call his cell. And than his other one, and his next one, and than his extra extra back-up one. Straight to voicemail. I call them all again. Same result. In the short few months I've known these two, I know this isn't like him. Without hesitating, I call Sam. He picks up in the middle of the first ring.

"Sam! I'm so glad you answered!" I say. "Have you heard from De-"

"Dean isn't answering your calls either?" Sam says worriedly.

"No, all straight to voicemail, he should be back by now too, did he tell you where he was going?" I ask.

"Yeah, local college, Pagan God, right?"

"Yep, except I don't know which one it is, or how to kill it. Dean was supposed to call on his way back." I say with a frown.

"Well maybe he'll be back soon." Sam says.

"Yeah, I hope so. See you Sam."

"Bye, Gem." He hangs up just as there's a knock at the door.

* * *

I leap right up to get it. In my normal 18-ish state I open the door. That was my mistake. Cause it's not Dean. It's the sheriff.

An hour later, I'm sitting in a jail cell. I can slip out of the handcuffs, but I wouldn't be able to get out. They give me a lot of food. A disturbing amount. That's when I realize it. Dean and I will be the ones sacrificed. Kill two hunters with one sacrifice.

"Do I get a phone call? Let my brother know where I am?" I ask. They let me call Sam.

"Yep, jail. And he's nowhere to be found. Sam, we really need you to come. You're already, okay great. Don't come, it's fine, just find him ok?" I keep it vague, just in case. Besides, I don't need Sam bringing it to attention that I'm not here. Cause I have a plan, there's just one problem. For a while, they have a female cop watching me. I need her to switch shifts, that way I can go to the bathroom alone. When she finally does, the sun is starting to set. I have a feeling I don't have much time, and neither does Dean.

"Can I, um, go to the bathroom? Please?" I ask the (now male) cop. He looks hesitant. "It's an, you know, _emergency." _The look on his face is priceless.

"Oh, oh, yeah, uh, I'll lead you there." He says awkwardly. As soon as I'm in a stall, I look for cameras. I guess they don't want to watch people peeing. I change to look like an officer and head out, claiming I saw, well, me, in there. I manage to grab the cell phone that was on me from evidence, and head out the door. I turn into an alley and no longer look like an officer. I'm free! Time to track Dean's cell phone.

* * *

So the GPS is off. Great. All of them are. What next than to head to the orchard of doom? I steal a bike and pedal there, wondering when Sam will get here. I find nothing at the orchard, and wish I knew how to kill the darn thing, so this wouldn't be a problem. I head back to the motel, looking like an officer and saying I need to look at the room for evidence. I call Sam, he says he's on his way. I keep searching for Pagan Gods, finding nothing.

So, I can't find Dean, he's going to be sacrificed, Sam's on his way, but he won't get here for another hour, and it'll be late by then. To top it all off, Dean's car has all the guns. So all I have is a pocket-knife. Great. Simply freaking wonderful. I start heading towards the orchard. Turns out I have the worst luck. The sheriff's car is passing by, and he pulls over when he sees me on the stolen bike. Before he can see, I change to look like a boy, basically a boy version of me.

"Sorry kid, orchard's closed." He says to me. "Want a ride back?" He asks.

"No sheriff, it's fine, I'll ride back now." God I made my voice high. Weird.

As soon as he's out of sight, I turn back around. They have to be there. And it's really late now. A car is stopping at the orchard. I recognize the face, and pedal faster. I can hardly see it's so dark. But I can make out the face alright.  
"Sam!" I call happily. He looks up, and I realize I'm still a boy, I change.

"Sam!" I say again. He has supplies, namely, guns. We both take one. I also grab the holy water, splash it on my face, and some silver and cut myself.

"Just thought you might want to do that." I say. He smiles.

"Let's go save Dean's ass."

"Dean?" Sam says, looking around. We see them. Dean and Emily are both tied to trees. Seriously? In the absence of me, they chose their own niece? That's sick.

"Oh! Oh, I take everything back I said. I'm so happy to see you. Come on." Dean sighs happily. I wonder what he said. Sam begins untying Dean from the tree, while I untie Emily. "How'd you get here?" Dean asks.

"I, uh—I stole a car." Sam says, I wish I could've done the same.

"A bike." I say, "Or else I would've gotten here sooner. Of course, being thrown in jail didn't help."

"Sorry 'bout that Gem, but Sam. Haha! That's my boy! And keep an eye on that scarecrow. He could come alive any minute." Dean's right, Sam and I both glance up. Uh-oh.

"What scarecrow?" He asks. Dean and I look at eachother, horror on our face. We get all get up, and run.

* * *

"Alright, now, this sacred tree you're talking about—" Sam starts. Dean told us that the god, Vanir, had a special tree.

"It's the source of its power." Dean explains.

"So let's find it and burn it." Sam says.

"Nah, in the morning. Let's just shag ass before Leather Face catches up." We jog towards Sam's new car. We reach a clearing. Waiting for us are the sheriff, Emily's aunt and uncle and a few other townspeople.

"This way." Dean tries to go in another direction, but we are blocked in all directions.

'Please. Let us go." Emily says.

"It doesn't have to be you anymore Emily. Just come with us. It'll be over quickly for them, I promise." Her uncle says. Haha, I'm not being sacrificed.

"Please." Emily says. "You don't have to do this."

"Emily, you have to let him take them. You have to."All of a sudden, the scarecrow sticks his sickle through his stomach. Emily and her aunt scream, then she is captured by the scarecrow as well. They're being dragged away, and Emily turns into Dean's arms while he her aunt and uncle are dragged away by the scarecrow. The rest of the townspeople run away, terrified.

"Come on, let's go." Dean pulls us along. We hear a noise and turn, but the scarecrow has disappeared.

* * *

The next morning, we head into the orchard for the last time. We walk in silence until we find the tree, and Sam starts to soak it. I gather twigs and grass to gather at the bottom. Dean holds a lighted branch.

"Let me." Emily says, holding her arm out for the branch.

"You know, the whole town is going to die." Dean warns her.

"Good." Emily throws the branch at the tree, and we watch as it slowly burns.

* * *

We drive Emily to a bus station, and watch as she boards it. The bus pulls away, leaving the three of us alone.

"Think she's gonna be alright?" Sam says.

"I hope so." I'm not satisfied.

"But what about the town, the people. They killed for years. Are we just going to let them slide?"

"Well, what'll happen to the town will have to be punishment enough." Dean says. We start walking to the car. "So, can I drop you off somewhere?" Dean says hesitantly to Sam.

"No, I think you're stuck with me." Sam says. I smile, finally they're making sense.

"What made you change your mind?" Dean asks.

"I didn't. I still wanna find Dad. And you're still a pain in the ass." Dean nods. "But, Jess and Mom, Gemma's family, they're all gone. Dad is God knows where. You and me. And you Gem." I smile. The fact that he's including me in this speech makes me feel better. "We're all that's left. So, if we're gonna see this through, we're gonna do it together."

"Hold me, Sam. That was beautiful." Dean says. I roll my eyes. Way to ruin the moment. He puts his hand on Sam's shoulder, who hits it away. They laugh.

"You should be kissing my ass, you were dead meat, dude." Sam laughs.

"Hey, I got there in time!" I protest. I'm not completely useless!  
"Okay bike girl. You didn't even have a gun!" Sam says.

"Okay, unlike someone, I was in a small town with the sheriff on my ass. Bike was my best option. Not to mention the fact that _Dean_ has all the guns in _his _car. And when did you get out of jail?"

"I can't shapeshift! You, on the other hand, have it easy!" I scoff.

"Please."

"Guys, it doesn't matter. I had a plan, I'd have gotten out."

"Yeah, right." Sam and I say in synch. We laugh, and climb into the car. It sure is good to have Sam back.


	10. Faith Pt 1

It's here. We've been hunting it for days, and it's here. Dean stops the car. We head to the trunk where Dean pulls out three tasers.

"What do you have those amped up to?" Sam asks.

"A hundred thousand volts." Dean answers calmly.

"Are you serious?" I ask him. "What are you thinking?"

Dean shrugs. "I want this rawhead extra frickin' crispy. And remember, you only get one shot with these things. So make it count." We nod. Time to finish this.

Tasers and flashlights in hand, we creep downstairs, looking for it. Instead, we hear a faint noise emit from a cupboard. We head over to it.

"On three." Dean whispers. "One, two, three!" They pull the cupboard doors open, and we shine the flashlight inside. There are two kids, a brother and sister hiding inside.

"Is it still here?" Sam whispers urgently. They nod.

"Ok. Grab your sister's hand, come on, we gotta get you out of here. Let's go, let's go. Alright, go!" Dean says as they rush up the stairs. Just as Sam starts to follow, something reaches out and grabs his leg.

"Sam!" I shout, as the kids scream and run upstairs. Dean shoots his taser, but misses. "Quick, get them out of here!" I say.

Sam throws his taser to Dean. "Here, take this." He runs upstairs after the kids, and Dean and I head to opposite ends of the basement.

I hear a crash and turn, seeing nothing. I rush over to see Dean lying on the ground, searching desperately for his taser. The creature starts towards him.

"Hey!" I say, making it turn. I shoot.

It stands, shaking violently as the currents enter him, and exit. He's standing in a puddle of water. The same puddle Dean is in.

"No!" I yell helplessly as the currents travel to Dean's body, knowing better than to step in the water. Seconds later, I take a hesitant step in, and sprint the next few. I crouch over to Dean, feeling is pulls. It's there, but erratic.

"Sam! Sam! Oh god, oh god. Dean, come on Dean!" Sam appears at the top of the stairs.

"Call 911." I say breathlessly. Even in the dark basement, I think Sam sees the tears streaming down my face. Did I just kill Dean Winchester?

* * *

Sam is speaking to a receptionist while I wait with a couple of cops. They decided against questioning me when they noticed my entire body shaking, focusing on not crying. Sam walks over.

"Look, we can finish this up later." One of them says.

"No, no, it's okay. We were just taking a shortcut through the neighborhood. And, um, the windows were rolled down, we heard some screaming when we drove past the house, and we stopped. Ran in." Sam explains. I decide to let him do all the talking.

"And you found the kids in the basement?" The other asks.

"Yeah."

"Well, thank God you did."

I see a doctor walking towards us. I cough and look at Sam, then at the doctor.

"Excuse me." Sam says to the cops.

"Sure. Thanks for your help." We walk over to the doctor.

"Hey, Doc. Is he…" Sam starts.

"He's resting." The doctor interrupts.

"And, is he… is he… is he gonna be okay?" I choke out.

The doctor looks at me in pity. "The electrocution triggered a heart attack. Pretty massive, I'm afraid. His heart...it's damaged." The news hits me like a bullet.

"How damaged?" Sam asks.

"We've done all we can. We can try and keep him comfortable at this point. But, I'd give him a couple weeks, at most, maybe a month." I can't breathe, I can't swallow. I just stand there. Deadweight.

"No, no. There's, there's...gotta be something you can do, some kind of treatment." Sam reads my thoughts.

"We can't work miracles. I really am sorry." The doctor responds solemnly. I did this. I shot the taser. I killed Dean. I ruined Sam's life. All of this is my fault. Just mine.

* * *

I follow Sam down the hallway to Dean's room. He already has dark circles under his eyes and looks weak. I swallow uncomfortably.

"Have you ever actually watched daytime TV? It's terrible." He says, trying to be funny. He sounds weak.

"I talked to your doctor." Sam says quietly. Dean is hardly paying attention.

"That fabric softener teddy bear. Oh, I'm gonna hunt that little bitch down." He says.

"Dean." Dean looks up and turns off the TV.

"Yeah. All right, well, looks like you two gonna leave town without me." He says.

"What are you talking about? I'm not gonna leave you here." Sam says in surprise.

"Hey, you better take care of that car. Or, I swear, I'll haunt your ass." Dean says, sounding serious. I dig my fingernails into my leg. Don't lose it now.

"I don't think that's funny." Sam says.

"Oh, come on, it's a little funny."

Sam looks down, fighting tears.

"Look, Sammy, what can I say, man, it's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story." He didn't draw the short straw. He picked up me.

"Dean," I say in a strangled voice. He puts up his hand and stops me.

"This isn't your fault, I would've tased him myself. Like I said, it's dangerous, and I drew the short straw.

"Don't talk like that, alright? We still have options." Sam protests.

"What options? Yeah, burial or cremation. And I know it's not easy. But I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it." Dean says.

"Watch me."

I finally speed walk to the bathroom, lock myself in a stall, and let the tears that I had been holding back spill.

* * *

"Heart fixing spells, witchcraft, potions, actual medical care. Nothing there's nothing!" I say in my head. Or not so much.

"You're muttering again." Sam reminds me. I guess stuff happens when you haven't slept in three days. I don't know how Sam is holding it together. Then again, he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I say, hoisting myself off the bed I haven't moved off of since we got here. Sam nods, but his head doesn't move to acknowledge me. I think he calls someone while I'm in there. I don't bother to listen.

I just sit down on the imprint that didn't change since I left when there's a knock at the door.

"You expecting someone?" I ask Sam as I get up again, almost hopeful he is, someone who can fix-

"Dean? What are you doing here?" I gasp. He looks awful, and he should be at the hospital.

"I checked myself out." Sam helps me get Dean towards the couch.

"What, are you crazy?" Sam says in disbelief.

"Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot." He laughs. I want to roll my eyes, and yell at him, but the smile won't wipe off my face.

"You know, this whole I-laugh-in-the-face-of-death thing? It's crap. I can see right through it." Sam says. Dean doesn't care.

"Yeah, whatever, dude. Have you even slept? You look worse than me." I snort. Has he seen himself lately.

"We've been scouring the Internet for the last three days. Calling every contact in Dad's journal." Sam explains.

"For what?"

"For a way to help you. One of Dad's friends, Joshua, he called me back. Told me about a guy in Nebraska. A specialist." Well this is news to me.

"Uh, Sam? Why was I not informed of this?" I ask.

"I was going to tell you when Dean walked in." My smile widens. We can fix this. Dean just stares at us.

"You're not gonna let me die in peace, are you?"

"I'm not gonna let you die, period. We're going."


	11. Faith Pt 2

It's raining and muddy. I'm glad Dean lets Sam drive because he is in no shape to be driving a car. Sam parks the Impala, and rushes to help Dean out of the car.

"I got it." Dean says, pushing Sam away, but he leans on me ever so slightly to stabilize himself. He doesn't want Sam to know.

"Man, you are a lying bastard. Thought you said we were going to see a doctor." Dean says, annoyed. I follow his gaze to a sign. _The Church of Roy LeGrange. Faith Healer. Witness The Miracle._

"I believe I said a specialist. Look, Dean, this guy's supposed to be the real deal."

"I can't believe you brought me here to see some guy who heals people out of a tent.

An elderly woman passes by. "Reverend LeGrange is a great man." She says.

"Yeah, that's nice." Dean says, glaring at Sam. We walk past a sheriff and man arguing.

"I have a right to protest. This man is a fraud. And he's milking all these people out of their hard-earned money." Dean looks at Sam pointedly as the sheriff walks the guy away.

"I take it he's not part of the flock."

"When people see something they can't explain, there's controversy." Sam dismisses Dean. "Gemma, will you side with me here?" Sam says helplessly. I internally groan.

"I'm going to withhold judgment until I see further proof of whether this works or not." Just as Dean is smiling, I ruin his happiness. "However, I feel that there is no reason why we should not try this. Therefore, get in the tent." Dean sighs.

"But I mean, come on guys, a faith healer?"

"Maybe it's time to have a little faith, Dean." Sam replies.

"You know what I've got faith in? Reality. Knowing what's really going on." Dean scoffs.

"How can you be a skeptic? With the things we see everyday?" Sam protests.

"Exactly. We see them, we know they're real." Dean says.

"But if you know evil's out there, how can you not believe good's out there, too?"

"Because I've seen what evil does to good people."

A woman walks by, overhearing our argument. "Maybe God works in mysterious ways." She says.

Dean checks her out, and smiles. "Maybe he does. I think you just turned me around on the subject." He says, managing to make that sound flirtatious.

"So if we need to get Dean to do something I'll just turn really hot, easy." I mumble to Sam.

"I'm Dean. This is Sam, and Gemma." Dean introduces us.

"Layla." She answers. "So, if you're not a believer, then why are you here?" She asks.

"Well, apparently my brother here believes enough for the both of us." Dean says, still sounding vaguely pissed.

"And what about you?" Layla asks me.

"I'm withholding judgment." I explain simply.

An older woman puts her arm around Layla. "Come on, Layla. It's about to start." She says. They go into the tent.

"Well, I bet you she can work in some mysterious ways." Dean says with a smirk. We follow into the tent.

We all look around, there's a ton of people sitting in front of a stage.

"Yeah, peace, love, and trust all over." Dean says. Sam and I follow his line of sight to a security camera.

Dean tries to sit down in the back, but Sam pulls him forward. "Come on." He says.

"Don't! What are you doing? Let's sit here." Dean tries to pull away from him.

"We're sitting up front." Sam says.

"What? Why?" Dean is indignant.

"Come on." Sam says as we move up the aisle.

"Oh, come on, guys." Dean growls angrily.

"You alright?" Sam asks.

"This is ridiculous." Dean says, he slaps Sam's hand away. "I'm good, dude, get off me."

Sam lets go and points to three empty seats behind Layla and her mother. "Perfect."

"Yeah, perfect." Dean says sarcastically.

I head into the furthest seat, and Sam follows me. "You take the aisle." Sam orders. Dean looks at me, his eyes pleading. I put my hands up in surrender.

"Not getting involved on this one."

A blind man, who I assume is Roy, is helped on to the stage by his wife.

"Each morning, my wife, Sue Ann, reads me the news. Never seems good, does it?" He asks. The crowd mumbles their agreement. "Seems like there's always someone committing some immoral, unspeakable act." Sam and I both look at an old wooden cross that is topped by a smaller cross on a table. I raise my eyebrows at him. he shrugs.

"But, I say to you, God is watching." Roy continues.

"Yes he is." The crowd murmurs.

"God rewards the good, and He punishes the corrupt." The crowd nods, and cheers.

"It is the Lord who does the healing here friends. The Lord who guides me in choosing who to heal by helping me see into people's hearts." Is he saying that some people aren't 'worthy' of being saved?

Dean is having none of this."Yeah, and into their wallets." He says to us quietly. I can see what's coming.

"Dean, you idiot." He looks at me in surprise, but quickly learns why I said it.

"You think so, young man?" The crowd immediately falls silent.

"Sorry." Dean says uncomfortably.

"No, no. Don't be. Just watch what you say around a blind man, we've got real sharp ears." The crowd laughs. "What's your name, son?"

He clears his throat, hesitating. "Dean."

"Dean. He nods to himself. "I want-I want you to come up here with me." Is he serious?

The crowd claps. Layla and her mother are clearly uncomfortable. Sue Ann moves to centre stage, smiling at Dean.

"No, it's ok." He says. What he is he thinking?

"You've come here to be healed, haven't cha?" Roy asks.

He hesitates again. "Well, yeah, but ahh...maybe you should just pick someone else."

"Dean!" I say in aggravation. The crowd claps loudly.

"Oh, no. I didn't pick you, Dean, the Lord did." Ok, call me a hypocrite, but I seriously doubt that. The audience gets louder.

"Get up there!" Sam says excitedly.

Dean reluctantly rises and moves toward the stage. Sue Ann moves to assist and stands him next to Roy.

"You ready?" Roy asks.

"Look, no disrespect, but ahh, I'm not exactly a believer." Dean, stop blowing this.

"You will be, son. You will be." Roy says.

He turns back to us. "Pray with me, friends."

The crowd lifts their arms up and joins hands with each other. Roy lifts his hands to the air, then places one on the side of Dean's head.

"Alright now. Alright now."

Suddenly, Dean's eyes glaze over. His knees weaken and he sinks to his knees, Roy's hand still on his head. It's all I can do not run out of my seat and rip the guy's hands away, Sam is clearly worried as well.

"Alright, now." He repeats once more.

Dean wobbles, his eyes fall back in his head and he slips to the stage floor. I've had enough, and shove Sam into the aisle, and we run to the stage.

"Dean!" Sam shakes him.

The crowd is clapping excitedly, and I give them my death glare, and yet that doesn't faze them as they continue to cheer.

Sam grabs the front of Dean's hoodie, and suddenly his eyes burst open and he gasps.

"Say something!" Sam gasps, worried. Dean blinks groggily and looks up, silent.

* * *

As soon as Dean is mobile, we rush him to a doctor to run tests on his heart. We don't bother mentioning the situation, which I suppose is why the doctor is confused about why we're here. Sam, however, is practically dancing.

"So you really feel okay?"

"I feel fine Sam." Dean says, annoyed.

"And, of course, you'd tell us if you're not. Right?" I say pointedly.

"Yeah, yeah yeah." He says, just as the doctor is coming in.

"Well, according to all your tests there's nothing wrong with your heart. No sign there ever was. Not that a man your age should be having heart trouble, but, still, it's strange, it does happen." She says offhandedly.

"What do you mean, strange?" Dean asks, immediately interested.

"Well, just yesterday, a young guy like you, twenty-seven, athletic. Out of nowhere, heart attack." She says. Okay, that qualifies as strange.

"Thanks, Doc." Dean says.

"No problem." She leaves.

"That's odd." Dean says, already sure.

"Maybe it's a coincidence. People's hearts give out all the time, man." Sam says, clearly wanting out of here.

"No, they don't." Dean says.

"Well, technically…"

I had a feeling Sam wouldn't let me continue. "Look, Dean, do we really have to look this one in the mouth? Why can't we just be thankful that the guy saved your life and move on?"

"Because I can't shake this feeling, that's why."

"And if you could, say, elaborate…"

"When I was healed, I just...I felt wrong. I felt cold. And for a second...I saw someone. This, uh, this old man. And I'm telling you, Sam, it was a spirit." Quick jump there, especially with the total lack of research.

"But if there was something there, Dean, I think I would've seen it, too. I mean, I've been seeing an awful lot of things lately." Ok, way not to be full of yourself.

"Well, excuse me, psychic wonder. But you're just gonna need a little faith on this one. Sam, I've been hunting long enough to trust a feeling like this." Dean says.

"Maybe it's the hunters paranoia talking then." I, well I guess I unhelpfully point out in Dean's eyes.

"Or maybe, since I've been hunting longer than you, Melody, _I'm_ right."

"You son of a bitch, if you ever call me that again, I will tear you-"

"Gem!" Sam exclaims, shoving me away from Dean. "And yeah Dean, not cool." Sam says in my defense, as I'm practically fuming. "So, what do you wanna do?" He asks Dean.

"I want you two to go check out the heart attack guy. I'm gonna visit the reverend."

* * *

I'm still furious at Dean. Why does he think I changed my name? To be called that name by two idiots that hardly even knowed Melody? The innocent little girl who wanted to be a doctor one day? Not a hunter? I'm (rather stupidly I'll admit) mad at Sam too. Now that Dean isn't on death's edge, I want to kill them both. Sam and I go to the gym that the heart attack guy, Marshall apparently, went to.

"I'm telling you, he seemed healthy. Swam every day, didn't smoke. So, a heart attack just kind of seemed, well, bizarre." The man says, starting to walk us to the pool.

"And you said he was running, right before he collapsed?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, yeah, he was freaking out. He said that something was, uh, was after him." Shit, maybe Dean is right on this one.

"Did he say what?" I ask.

"Well, thin air is what. I mean, it wasn't anything."

"Alright, thanks." Sam says, starting to walk away.

"You know your clock is broken." I say.

"Oh, yeah, we, uh, can't get it workin'. Just froze at 4:17."

"Is that the same time Marshall died?" Sam asks.

"How'd you know?"


	12. Faith Pt 3

I cross the last name off my list just as Dean comes in the motel room.

"What'd you find out?" He asks casually, but the look that flickers across his face says otherwise.

"I'm sorry." Sam's quiet voice cuts through the room.

"Sorry about what?" Dean asks cautiously.

"Marshall Hall." I say, when Sam falls silent. "He died at 4:17, exactly."

"The same time I was healed." He says, stunned.

I nod as Sam jumps back into action. "Yeah. So, I put together a list of everyone Roy's healed, six people over the past year, and we cross-checked them with the local obits. Every time someone was healed, someone else died. And each time, the victim died of the same symptom LeGrange was healing at the time." Sam explains.

"Someone's healed of cancer, someone else dies of cancer?" Dean clarifies.

"Yep."

"LeGrange is trading a life for another." Or something like that.

"Wait, wait, wait. So, Marshall Hall died to save me?" Dean asks.

"Dean, the guy probably would've died anyway. And someone else would've been healed." Sam says, to help the sting.

"You never should've brought me here." Dean says, standing up, annoyed.

"Dean, I was just trying to save your life." Sam explains helplessly.

"But, Sam, some guy is dead now because of me." Dean says, on edge and boiling.

"Dean, there was no way we could've known." I say, trying to keep them from getting in a fight. Much to my surprise, he drops it.

"The thing I don't understand is how is Roy doing it? How's he trading a life for a life?" Sam asks.

"Oh, he's not doing it." Dean scoffs. "Something else is doing it for him."

"What is?"

"The old man I saw on stage. I didn't want to believe it, but deep down I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"What are you talking about?" Sam and I ask at the same time.

"We're dealing with a reaper."

* * *

"_The_ reaper? Seriously? I mean, I signed up for some crazy shit with you guys, but _the_ reaper? Come on! The whole, 'collect your soul, angel of death' thing?" I say with air quotes

"No no no, not _the_ reaper, _a_ reaper. There's reaper law in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names, it's possible that there's more than one of them.

"But you said you saw a dude in a suit." Sam says.

"What, you think he shoulda been working the whole black robe thing?...You said it yourself that the clock stopped right? Reapers stop time. And you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why I could see it and you couldn't." Dean explains

"I mean, I _guess _it's possible. And I'm coming up with nothing else anyway." I say, closing my laptop.

DEAN

"There's nothing else it could be, Mel- Gem." He corrects himself, seeing I am _not_ over it. "The question is how is Roy controlling the damn thing?" We all stop what we're doing, unable to think of anything. Except…

"The cross!" I say, mostly to Sam.

"What?" Dean asks, and I remember he never saw it.

"There was this cross, I noticed it in the church and I knew I had seen it before." He rifles through some of his things. "Look."

"A Tarot?"

"It makes sense. A tarot dates back to the early christian era right, when some priests were still using magic? And a few of them veered into the dark stuff? Necromancy and how to push death away, how to cause it?" It does make sense, sadly enough.

"So Roy's using black magic to bind the reaper?"

"If he is he's riding the whirlwind. It's like putting a dog leash on a great white."

"Oh, that's comforting." I say.

"Ok then we stop Roy." Dean says simply.

"How?" Sam asks.

"You know how." Dean says cautiously. I realize what he means.

"No! No no no no no no. What if we're wrong! We can't just kill the guy!" I protest.

"Gem, the guy's playing God, he's deciding who lives and who dies. That's a monster in my book." He says.

"No, Gemma's right. We're not going to kill a human being Dean. We do that we're no better than he is."

"Thank you!"

"Ok, we can't kill Roy, we can't kill death. Any bright ideas college boy?" Dean says sarcastically.

"Ok. uh...If Roy's using some kind of black spell on the reaper, we gotta...figure out what it is. And how to break it."

* * *

We rush to the service, hoping to stop it.

"If Roy's using a spell, there might be a spell book." Sam reasons.

"See if you can find it." He glances at his watch. "Hurry up too, the service starts in fifteen minutes. Well try to stall Roy." Dean says to us.

Roy LeGrange is a fraud. He's no healer." A protester stands outside, and hands Dean a leaflet.

"Amen brother." Dean says.

"You have no idea." I say with a shake of my head. "Keep up the good work."

"Thank you."

* * *

Dean's phone rings when we enter the tent. "What have you got?... What, the guy in the parking lot?" He hangs up "We can't let Roy heal anyone, the protester is next." He says as we move further up the aisle.

Roy moves to the stage. "Layla. Layla Rourke. Come up here child."

"Oh man." Dean groans.

"That's why you were so uncomfortable." I whisper to Dean.

"What?"

"When you came back to the motel, you knew! Didn't you!" I sigh. "Dean, you know we can't…"

"Yeah, I know." He grabs Layla's arm as she walks by.

"Layla, listen to me. You can't go up there." Dean warns.

She gapes at us. "Why not? We've waited for months!"

"You can't let Roy heal you."

"I don't understand, Roy healed you didn't he? Why can't you let him try?" She says.

"Cause if you do something bad is going to happen. I can't explain. I just need you to believe me." Dean is desperate, but Sue Ann holds out her hand, beckoning her.

"Please."

"I'm sorry."

"Layla. Layla!" But we're too late, and Layla climbs on the stage confidently, unknowningly killing another man.

* * *

"Fire! Hurry! The tent's on fire!" Dean calls in a stroke of genius. Everyone starts to rush out in panic.

"No! No please! Please don't stop. Reverend, please, please! Please don't stop, please!" Layla's mother begs. I wince, wishing he had chosen Layla sooner, or chosen anyone but her now.

"Friends, if you'd all just leave the tent in an orderly fashion...and we'll, uh, and we'll figure out what's going on out there and we'll come back." He says as he's helped off the stage.

Dean pulls out his phone.

"I did it, I stopped Roy." Or so we think.

* * *

"Then who the hell is!" I hear Dean exlaim as I rush to go find Sam. I spin back to Dean.

"Sue Ann." I say, my voice a whisper, I point to where she's standing in the corner.

We run over and Dean turns her around. She gasps and quickly tucks in a wooden cross necklace, the same one Sam and I saw earlier.

"Help! Help me! She exclaims, catching the attention of two officers near by. They shove us out of the tent, but we both manage to shoot Sue Ann a look of disgust. Despite our glares, she has the nerve to follow us out.

"I just don't understand. After everything we've done for you. After Roy healed you. I'm just very very disappointed Dean." She says condecendingly.

"I don't think you have the right to be dissapointed in anybody now do you?" I hiss.

"You can let them go. I'm not gonna press charges. The Lord will deal with them as he sees fit." She says stiffly.

"We catch you round here again, we'll put the fear of God in you, understand?" The cop says, roughly releasing us.

"Yes sir, fear of god. Got it." Dean replies smartly.

"Hey, you!" The cops turn. "Tad handsy." I growl, seriously annoyed. He doesn't answer, but he totally was. We turn to see Layla.

"Layla?" Dean says anxiously.

"Why would you do that Dean? And it could have been my only chance." She says, broken.

"He's not a healer."

"He healed you." Dean can't argue with that.

"I know it doesn't seem fair, and I wish I could explain. But Roy is not the answer, I'm sorry." I hear his voice crack slightly, and I wince.

"Goodbye Dean." Layla walks away with a sad shake of her head.

"I wish you luck. I really do." She says quietly,

"Same to you."

"You deserve it a lot more than me." Dean says under his breath.

"Private session tonight, no interruptions. I give you my word, I'll heal your daughter." Sam, Dean and I all overhear.

"Thank you reverend. God bless you." Mrs. Rourke says.

We still have work to do.


	13. Faith Pt 4

**_Author's note; Sorry I updated 4 like this, but otherwise it won't load. I'm also sorry that it's been taking me so long to write these! I promise to continue!_**

"So Roy really believes." Sam says. We're sitting next to each other on one of the beds while Dean paces.

"I don't think he has any idea what his wife's doing."

"Well, I found this." He hands a small book to Dean. "Hidden in their library. It's ancient. Written by a priest who went dark side. There's a binding spell in here for trapping a reaper." He explains.

"That's gotta be… dark stuff." I say.

"Right-o kiddo." Dean says. At my glare he puts his hands up in surrender.

"Yeah." Sam continues, ignoring us. "You gotta build a black alter with seriously dark stuff. Bones, human blood. To cross a ine like that, a preachers wife. Black magic. Murder. Evil-"

"Desperate." Dean says, plopping down on the other bed. "Her husband was dying, she didn't have anything to save him. She was using the binding spell to keep the reaper away from Roy." Dean realizes.

"Cheating death, literally."

"Yeah but Roy's alive, so why is she still using the spell?"

"Right. To force the reaper to kill people she thinks are immoral."

"God save us from half the people who think they're doing God's work."

"We gotta break that binding spell."

"You know Sue Ann had a coptic cross like this. When she dropped it the reaper backed off."

"So you think we gotta find the cross or destroy the alter?" Sam asks.

"Maybe both. Whatever we do we better do it soon, or he's healing Layla tonight." Dean says.

"And how are you two supposed to get in to the private session and stop Sue Ann? Or get anywhere near the tent or the house? They probably have cops looking specifically for you two."

"We'll have to deal with that when we get there." Is my only answer.

* * *

The Impala bounces in the parking lot. At this point I think they should've had cops taking ID's at the enterance, but I guess that doesn't scream trust.

"That's Layla's car. She's already here." Sam says in worry.

"Yeah."

"Dean…"

"You know if Roy woulda picked Layla instead of me she'd be here right now. And if she's not healed tonight she's gonna die in a coupla months." I decide to let Sam take the reins on this one. As I keep reminding myself, this is my fault. I have the man that saved Dean's life blood on me now. Besides, Dean and I are on thin ice anyway.

"What's happening to her is horrible. But what are you gonna do? Let somebody else die to save her? You said it yourself Dean, you can't play God."

Dean sits without speaking, then gets out of the car. Sam and I follow. We approach the tent and peek inside. Roy is speaking to a small group of the faithful, including Layla and her mother.

"Gather round, please everyone, gather round. Come in closer, come on up." It's just starting now. That gives us some time at least.

"Where's Sue Ann?" I voice my concern.

"House."

We creep to the house, only to see the two (handsy) cops walking by.

"Go find Sue Ann, I'll catch up." Dean says to us.

"What are you gonna...?"

"Hey!" Dean says to the cops. They look over.

"You gonna put that fear of God in me?" So _that_ was his big plan.

The cops drop their coffee and run at Dean, who takes off.

As soon as they're gone Sam and I run up the stairs and check around the house. It's completely dark, no evidence of Sue Ann. Suddenly Sam spots light coming from a crack in the doors to enter the cellar. We head in.

* * *

We move quietly through the basement to a candlelit alter littered with parts of dead animals, blood, horns, and other things that I won't mention. There is a photo in the middle of Dean, taken from the security camera the first time we were in the tent, before he was healed. His face has been crossed out with what looks like blood. That's a great sign.

"I gave your brother life and I can take it away." Sue Ann appears out of nowhere behind us.

"That's just the thing. You can't. You're done playing God." I snap.

Sam angrily flips the table, destroying glass jars and cutting the picture of Dean.

"You're wrong, can't you see? The Lord chose me to reward the just and punish the wicked. And your brother is wicked and he deserves to die just as Layla deserves to live. It is God's will." She says. I see Sam planning a way out of here, I need to distract her.

"But he's just like you! Dean! He kills the evil as well to save innocent lives, the people he saves are chosen by God as well. People will die if you kill him!" I say desperately.

"And people will die if I don't. Goodbye, Sam, Gemma."

"No wait!" But I hear her footsteps run off. Luckily, Sam has already found a way out. He smashes a boarded up window.

"Come on Gemma. We need to find her."

* * *

"Go find Sue Ann, I need to find Dean." I demand.

"No, Gem, there's nothing you can do to help him." He doesn't mean it, I know that, but my eyes still flash to me shooting the taser. I take off into a sprint, and I know Sam doesn't have time to stop me. This is my fault and I need to fix it.

* * *

I run into him, quite literally. "Dean, we need to run. You're the target! Sam is-" Dean's eyes widen in fear. The reaper is here now. He sinks to his knees.

"Dean!" I yell, panicked. He falls to the ground, and his eyes start to glaze over. I check his pulse, and is hearbeat is slowing, as is his breathing. Helpless as it likely is, I start CPR.

"Come on, come on! Dean, pull through!" I wish the reaper was something I could punch, but I can't feel it myself, just the occasional waft of cold when I must touch it. Suddenly Dean gasps, and his face regains color. I wipe my tears, but to no avail, and hop off of Dean. Sam did it, he stopped Sue Ann. Rather uncharacteristically, I hug him, and he hugs back in surprise. I let out a shaky breath and smile as we walk back to meet Sam at the Impala.

"You ok?" Sam asks us. Noting Dean's alive and my tear-streaked face.

"Hell of a week." Dean answers for us.

"Yeah, all right. Come on, we should get going."

* * *

Dean sits on one of the beds while Sam and I pack up, clearing out the room.

"What is it?" Sam asks.

"Nothing." Dean replies unconvincingly.

"What is it?"

"We did the right thing here didn't we?"

"Of course we did."

"It doesn't feel like it." He says quietly. I am unhelpfully reminded once again that this was my fault.

A knock at the door makes me jump.

"I got it." Sam opens it. "Hey Layla. Come on in."

"Hey." What is she doing here?

"How did you know we were here?" Dean asks awkwardly.

"Sam...called. He said you...wanted to say goodbye?" She says questioningly.

Dean glances at Sam, who is at the door, looking sheepish.

"I'm gonna...grab a soda. Gem?"

"Oh sure, parched." I say, practically shoving Sam out the door.

* * *

"You sneaky bastard!" I laugh at his cruelty. He shares a rare smile, but it quickly dies. I cough.

"What's - what's wrong?"

"Are you ok?" He asks. "I mean, with what happened and all… and you exploded when Dean called you Melody." I wince, and decide against lying.

"I chose a new name for a reason. That's not me anymore. And, well, you guys didn't know her, you don't know who Melody was. I just was overly emotional and irrationally angry, but I really can't be called that. Too many memories." I explain, not really to Sam, but to myself.

Sam nods, and the joking mood is quickly back.

"So, not even Mel?" He asks, nimbly avoiding my punch.

"Maybe." I ponder. "Sammy." His face hardens.

"Or not, Samantha." I say slyly.

"Well, Mel, if that's the way it has to be." He says with a laugh. Layla rounds the corner and we sober up, pretending to be talking like normal people before staggering back to the room.

"Deal? Mel for Sammy or Samantha?" I ask before we enter. He scoffs.

"Fine, Mel, Gem, whatever!" He snaps, jokingly.

It's werid, I never talked to Sam like this before. I shoot him a smile, and as we later climb into the Impala, wonder if he's not all what he seems to be.


	14. Sorry

**A/N **Hi everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted at all, I feel really bad that I've been ignoring my fanfictions. I recently got a wattpad and was putting my fanfictions on there, and while reading through I did see some technical errors and plot holes that needed to be fixed. I am making a new story and will be updating on that one from now on, starting with the first few chapters. Again, sorry I've been off for so long, I will try to update more often.


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